Smart hazard detector drills

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for initiating a drill by receiving an indication to start a drill. Initiating the drill also includes verifying that a remote device used to initiate the drill is within proximity of a device used to propagate the drill. Once proximity is verified, the drill is conducted.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of Provisional Application Ser. No.61/976,453, filed Apr. 7, 2015, entitled “Smart Hazard Detector Drills,”which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

This disclosure relates to systems, devices, methods, and relatedcomputer program products for smart buildings including the smart home.More particularly, this patent specification relates to detection units,such as hazard detection units (e.g., smoke detectors. carbon monoxidesensors, etc.) or other monitoring devices, that are useful in smartbuilding and smart home environments and drills to prepare for an actualemergency.

Some homes today are equipped with smart home networks to provideautomated control of devices, appliances and systems, such as heating,ventilation, and air conditioning (“HVAC”) systems, lighting systems,alarm systems, and home theater and entertainment systems. Smart homenetworks may include control panels that a person may use to inputsettings, preferences, and scheduling information that the smart homenetwork uses to provide automated control the various devices,appliances and systems in the home. For example, a person may input adesired temperature and a schedule indicating when the person is awayfrom home. The home automation system uses this information to controlthe HVAC system to heat or cool the home to the desired temperature whenthe person is home, and to conserve energy by turning offpower-consuming components of the HVAC system when the person is awayfrom the home. Also, for example, a person may input a preferrednighttime lighting scheme for watching television. In response, when theperson turns on the television at nighttime, the home automation systemautomatically adjusts the lighting in the room to the preferred scheme.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

A summary of certain embodiments disclosed herein is set forth below. Itshould be understood that these aspects are presented merely to providethe reader with a brief summary of these certain embodiments and thatthese aspects are not intended to limit the scope of this disclosure.Indeed, this disclosure may encompass a variety of aspects that may notbe set forth below.

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide methods and systems forfacilitating the provisioning, set-up, configuration, control, and/ormanagement of intelligent, network-connected, multi-sensing hazarddetection units or smart hazard detectors. These smart hazard detectorsmay be used within a home, building, or structure to warn occupants ofthe home, building, or structure of a potential danger. A “pairing” ofthese network-connected smart hazard detectors and a user account on acloud-based smart hazard detector management system or an onlinemanagement account may be accomplished in a manner that reduces orminimizes an amount of user effort involved. After one of these smarthazard detectors is paired with an online management account using afirst wireless protocol, another smart hazard detector may communicatewith the paired smart hazard detector using a second wireless protocolin order to receive instructions for pairing with the online managementaccount. These smart hazard detectors may perform a variety offunctions, such as drilling emergency situations.

According to some embodiments, the smart hazard detectors may be used todrill via various emergency situation emulations to instill properbehavior of individuals and/or devices during an actual emergency. Incertain embodiments, a user may activate a drill mode eithersubstantially instantaneously when an initiating device is proximal toone or more smart hazard detectors or in the future using a schedulingfunction. Moreover, when scheduling or initiating a drill, the user mayselect various features (e.g., alarm type or location) to be used duringimplementation of the alarm.

In certain embodiments, the drills may be used in a social reportingscheme such that completed drills may result in positive rewards. Insome embodiments, the occurrence of a drill may be shared with others,such as posting a photograph via social media sites. Furthermore, insome embodiments, game information or rewards may be linked to drillresults. For example, portions of video games may be unlocked based ondrill completion or results. Additionally or alternatively, goals may beset for the drills that encourage improvements via a pseudo-gamingachievement awards.

Some embodiments of the smart hazard detectors may be used toincentivize drilling by providing indications of completion forfinancial rewards. For example, when the smart hazard detector systemdetermines that a drill has been legitimately performed, the smarthazard detector system may send a completion indication to thebuilding's insurance company to enable the insurance company to rewardgood drilling procedures by reducing insurance costs.

In certain embodiments, drills may be used to prepare devices for actualemergencies by allowing a user to determine whether a device behavior isdesired during an actual emergency. In other words, the drilling processmay be used to customize or refine smart device behavior during anactual emergency even smart devices not conventionally used to alert andaid in emergencies or drills. For example, drills may be used to preparehazard detectors, thermostats, locks, window sensors, HVAC units, lightswitches, or other suitable smart devices for desired behavior duringemergency situations.

Additionally, the smart hazard detectors may be capable of determiningvarious different emergency situations (e.g., smoke detected, COdetected, shelter in place alerts, earthquakes, floods, tornados, etc.)Building tenant reactions to each of these different emergencysituations may vary. Accordingly, different drills and/or instructionsmay be scheduled or initiated to prepare for each type of potentialemergency situation.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various aspects of this disclosure may be better understood upon readingthe following detailed description and upon reference to the drawings inwhich:

FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment of a smart-home environment withinwhich one or more of the devices, methods, systems, services, and/orcomputer program products described herein may be used, according to anembodiment;

FIG. 2 illustrates a network-level view of an extensible devices andservices platform with which the smart-home environment of FIG. 1 can beintegrated, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 3 illustrates a functional view of the extensible devices andservices platform of FIG. 2, with reference to a processing engine aswell as devices of the smart-home environment, according to anembodiment;

FIG. 4A illustrates an exploded perspective view of an intelligent,multi-sensing, network-connected hazard detector, according to anembodiment;

FIG. 4B illustrates an assembled perspective view of an intelligent,multi-sensing, network-connected hazard detector, according to anembodiment;

FIG. 5A illustrates a front perspective view of a circuit board of thehazard detector of FIGS. 4A-B, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 5B illustrates a rear perspective view of the circuit board of FIG.5A, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 5C illustrates a front rear perspective view of a speaker that ismountable on the circuit board of the hazard detector of FIGS. 5A-B,according to an embodiment;

FIG. 5D illustrates a rear perspective view of a speaker that ismountable on the circuit board of the hazard detector of FIGS. 5A-B,according to an embodiment;

FIG. 6A illustrates a front perspective view of a lens button of thehazard detector of FIGS. 4A-B, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 6B illustrates a rear perspective view of the lens button of FIG.6A, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 6C illustrates a front perspective view of a light guide of thehazard detector of FIGS. 4A-B, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 6D illustrates a rear perspective view of the light guide of FIG.6C, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 6E illustrates a front perspective view of a flexible strip of thehazard detector of FIGS. 4A-B, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 6F illustrates a rear perspective view of the flexible strip ofFIG. 6E, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 7 illustrates a flowchart illustrating a process for starting anemergency drill, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 8 illustrates a flowchart illustrating a process for starting anemergency drill using a manual actuation, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 9 illustrates a status screen that may be used to indicate that aparticular device is in a no-alarm state, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 10A illustrates a first screen that may be used to explain a drillprocess used in the process of FIG. 8, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 10B illustrates a second screen that may be used to explain a drillprocess used in the process of FIG. 8, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 10C illustrates a second screen that may be used to explain a drillprocess used in the process of FIG. 8, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 11 illustrates instructions to waken a sleeping device with manualactuation according to the process of FIG. 8, according to anembodiment;

FIG. 12 illustrates a connection error screen that may be used toindicate that connectivity has failed, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 13 illustrates a drill screen that may be displayed during a drill,according to an embodiment;

FIG. 14 illustrates a delay screen that counts down a delay beforestarting a drill, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 15 illustrates another smart device drill screen, according to anembodiment;

FIG. 16 illustrates a drill timeout screen that may be displayed when adrill has timed out, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 17A illustrates an unticked checklist, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 17B illustrates an ticked checklist that indicates which actionswere performed during the drill, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 18 illustrates an information page related to the checklist ofFIGS. 17A & 17B, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 19 illustrates a success screen that may be presented when a drillhas been completed, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 20 illustrates an improvement screen that may be presented when adrill has been completed, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 21 illustrates a comparison screen that compares previouslycompleted drill results, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 22 illustrates a ring that may be depressed on a hazard detector toinitiate the drill, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 23 illustrates a wake up and drill propagation scheme on a wirelessmesh network, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 24 illustrates a process that may be used to wake up and drillpropagations using the scheme of FIG. 23, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 25 illustrates a flowchart illustrating a process for starting anemergency drill using a wireless connection, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 26 illustrates a block diagram of a scheduling system that may beused to schedule a drill in the future, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 27 illustrates a process that may be used to schedule a drill usingthe scheduling system of FIG. 26, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 28 illustrates a process for conducting a scheduled drill,according to an embodiment;

FIG. 29 illustrates a configuration screen used in a scheduling system,according to an embodiment;

FIG. 30 illustrates a screen that may be used to enter or changesettings used to perform a drill, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 31 illustrates a portion of a building that may use a sequentialstrobe during a drill or emergency, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 32 illustrates an option selection interface that may be used toenter or change settings in the screen of FIG. 30, according to anembodiment;

FIG. 33 illustrates a process for reminding a user to drill, accordingto an embodiment;

FIG. 34 illustrates a process that may be used to share drillinformation, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 35 illustrates a process for determining incentives, according toan embodiment;

FIG. 36 illustrates a process for reducing insurance costs based ondrills, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 37 illustrates a system in which drill completions may be verified,according to an embodiment;

FIG. 38 illustrates a scheme for verifying that a drill has beensuccessfully completed, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 39 illustrates a profile that may be used in the scheme todetermine whether a drill has been successfully completed, according toan embodiment;

FIG. 40 illustrates a process for varying a drill based on drill types,according to an embodiment;

FIG. 41 illustrates a process for teaching devices to perform desiredbehaviors during or after a drill, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 42 illustrates a device log that may be used to display previousevents on a particular device or network, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 43 illustrates a drill history screen that may be displayed toenable review of previous drills, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 44 illustrates test results for a previous drill, according to anembodiment;

FIG. 45 illustrates a drilled down screen of the test results of FIG.44, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 46 illustrates a process for handling a power loss during a drill,according to an embodiment; and

FIG. 47 illustrates a process for handling an actual emergency during adrill, according to an embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DISCLOSURE

One or more specific embodiments of the present disclosure will bedescribed below. These described embodiments are only examples of thepresently disclosed techniques. Additionally, in an effort to provide aconcise description of these embodiments, all features of an actualimplementation may not be described in the specification. It should beappreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation,as in any engineering or design project, numerousimplementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve thedevelopers' specific goals, such as compliance with system-related andbusiness-related constraints, which may vary from one implementation toanother. Moreover, it should be appreciated that such a developmenteffort might be complex and time consuming, but may nevertheless be aroutine undertaking of design, fabrication, and manufacture for those ofordinary skill having the benefit of this disclosure.

When introducing elements of various embodiments of the presentdisclosure, the articles “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to mean thatthere are one or more of the elements. The terms “comprising,”“including,” and “having” are intended to be inclusive and mean thatthere may be additional elements other than the listed elements.Additionally, it should be understood that references to “oneembodiment” or “an embodiment” of the present disclosure are notintended to be interpreted as excluding the existence of additionalembodiments that also incorporate the recited features.

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to drillingemergency situations using smart hazard detectors discussed herein.These smart hazard detectors may be configured and adapted to beimplemented in a smart home environment, seamlessly interacting withother devices in the smart home environment and incorporating the otherdevices into the drilling process. The term “smart hazard detector” isused herein to represent a particular type of device that can be usedfor detecting hazards occurring within a structure, e.g., a home, anoffice or another structure. However, this smart hazard detector mayalso be capable of controlling other devices, detecting non-hazardrelated events (e.g., security related events), and/or working incooperation with other devices to provide additional features to thesmart home environment. Again, it is within the scope of the presentteachings for embodiments of the smart hazard detectors of the presentdisclosure to detect measurable characteristics other than hazards(e.g., pressure, flow rate, height, position, velocity, acceleration,capacity, power, loudness, and brightness) and monitor and/or respond toone or more measurable characteristics of one or more physical systems.

It should be appreciated that “smart home environments” may refer tosmart environments for any building type, such as single-family houses,duplexes, townhomes, multi-unit apartment buildings, hotels, retailstores, office buildings, industrial buildings, and any building thatmay include one or more smart hazard detectors.

It is to be further appreciated that while the terms user, customer,installer, homeowner, occupant, guest, tenant, landlord, repair person,and similar terms may be used to refer to a person or personsinteracting with the smart hazard detector or user interface, thesereferences are by no means to be considered as limiting the scope of thepresent teachings with respect to the person or persons who areperforming such actions. Thus, for example, the terms user, customer,purchaser, installer, subscriber, and homeowner may often refer to thesame person in the case of a single-family residential dwelling, becausethe head of the household is often the person who makes the purchasingdecision, buys the unit, and installs and configures the unit, and isalso one of the users of the unit. However, in other scenarios, such asa landlord-tenant environment, the customer may be the landlord withrespect to purchasing the unit, the installer may be a local apartmentsupervisor, a first user may be the tenant, and a second user may againbe the landlord with respect to remote control functionality.Importantly, while the identity of the person performing the action maybe germane to a particular advantage provided by one or more of theembodiments—for example, the password-protected hazard detectionfunctionality described further herein may be particularly advantageouswhere the landlord holds the sole password and can control hazarddetection via the hazard detection device—such identity should not beconstrued in the descriptions that follow as necessarily limiting thescope of the present teachings to those particular individuals havingthose particular identities.

The various devices of this disclosure may be used to prepare familiesand other building occupants for actual emergencies through hazarddrills. For example, smart hazard detectors (e.g., smoke and/or COdetectors) may run through a simulated alarm sequence to allow familiesor other building occupants to practice for an actual emergency. Thedevices may allow the participants to gauge their preparedness and evenoffer incentives for practicing hazard drills. For instance, regularlypracticing hazard drills (and/or verifying their proper completion) maybe rewarded with “achievements” or insurance discounts. Conductinghazard drills also may allow for participants and the smart devicesalike to gain information that may be used in an actual emergency. Forexample, the hazard drills may be used to build a profile of theoccupants and/or determine device preferences (e.g., device lighting oralarm preferences) to prepare for an actual emergency. By facilitatinghazard drills, the smart devices of this disclosure may provide ahelpful framework for emergency preparedness.

I. Smart Hazard Detectors and the Smart Home

With the foregoing in mind, FIG. 1 illustrates an example of asmart-home environment 100 within which one or more of the devices,methods, systems, services, and/or computer program products describedfurther herein can be applicable. The depicted smart-home environment100 includes a structure 150, which can include, e.g., a house, officebuilding, garage, or mobile home. In some embodiments, the devices canalso be integrated into a smart-home environment 100 that does notinclude an entire structure 150, such as an apartment, condominium, oroffice space. Further, the smart home environment can control and/or becoupled to devices outside of the actual structure 150. Indeed, severaldevices in the smart home environment need not physically be within thestructure 150 at all. For example, a device controlling a pool heater orirrigation system can be located outside of the structure 150.

The depicted structure 150 includes a plurality of rooms 152, separatedat least partly from each other via walls 154. The walls 154 can includeinterior walls or exterior walls. Each room can further include a floor156 and a ceiling 158. Devices can be mounted on, integrated with and/orsupported by a wall 154, floor 156 or ceiling 158.

In some embodiments, the smart-home environment 100 of FIG. 1 includes aplurality of devices, including intelligent, multi-sensing,network-connected devices that may integrate seamlessly with each other,with a central server, with a cloud-computing system, or a combinationthereof to provide any of a variety of useful smart-home objectives. Thesmart-home environment 100 may include one or more intelligent,multi-sensing, network-connected thermostats 102 (hereinafter referredto as “smart thermostats 102”), one or more intelligent,network-connected, multi-sensing hazard detection units 104 (hereinafterreferred to as “smart hazard detectors 104”), one or more intelligent,multi-sensing, network-connected doorbell devices 106 (hereinafterreferred to as “smart doorbells 106”), and one or more intelligent,network-connected door locks (hereinafter referred to as “smart doorlocks 107”). According to embodiments, the smart thermostat 102 detectsambient climate characteristics (e.g., temperature and/or humidity) andcontrols a HVAC system 103 accordingly. The smart hazard detector 104may detect the presence of a hazardous substance or a substanceindicative of a hazardous substance (e.g., smoke, fire, or carbonmonoxide). The smart doorbell 106 may detect a person's approach to ordeparture from a location (e.g., an outer door), control doorbellfunctionality, announce a person's approach or departure via audio orvisual means, or control settings on a security system (e.g., toactivate or deactivate the security system when occupants go and come).

In some embodiments, the smart-home environment 100 of FIG. 1 furtherincludes one or more intelligent, multi-sensing, network-connected wallswitches 108 (hereinafter referred to as “smart wall switches 108”),along with one or more intelligent, multi-sensing, network-connectedwall plug interfaces 110 (hereinafter referred to as “smart wall plugs110”). The smart wall switches 108 may detect ambient lightingconditions, detect room-occupancy states, and control a power and/or dimstate of one or more lights. In some instances, smart wall switches 108may also control a power state or speed of a fan, such as a ceiling fan.The smart wall plugs 110 may detect occupancy of a room or enclosure andcontrol supply of power to one or more wall plugs (e.g., such that poweris not supplied to the plug if nobody is at home).

Further, in some embodiments, the smart-home environment 100 of FIG. 1includes a plurality of intelligent, multi-sensing, network-connectedappliances 112 (hereinafter referred to as “smart appliances 112”), suchas refrigerators, stoves and/or ovens, televisions, washers, dryers,lights, stereos, intercom systems, garage-door openers, floor fans,ceiling fans, wall air conditioners, pool heaters, irrigation systems,security systems, window sensors, security systems, and so forth.According to embodiments, the network-connected appliances 112 may bemade compatible with the smart-home environment by cooperating with therespective manufacturers of the appliances. For example, the appliancescan be space heaters, window AC units, motorized duct vents, etc. Whenplugged in, an appliance can announce itself to the smart-home network,such as by indicating what type of appliance it is, and it canautomatically integrate with the controls of the smart-home. Suchcommunication by the appliance to the smart home can be facilitated byany wired or wireless communication protocols known by those havingordinary skill in the art. The smart home also can include a variety ofnon-communicating legacy appliances 140, such as old conventionalwasher/dryers, refrigerators, and the like which can be controlled,albeit coarsely (ON/OFF), by virtue of the smart wall plugs 110. Thesmart-home environment 100 can further include a variety of partiallycommunicating legacy appliances 142, such as infrared (“IR”) controlledwall air conditioners or other IR-controlled devices, which can becontrolled by IR signals provided by the smart hazard detectors 104 orthe smart wall switches 108.

According to some embodiments, the smart thermostats 102, the smarthazard detectors 104, the smart doorbells 106, the smart wall switches108, the smart wall plugs 110, and other devices of the smart-homeenvironment 100 may be modular and may be incorporated into older andnew houses. For example, in some embodiments, the devices are designedaround a modular platform consisting of two basic components: a headunit and a back plate, also referred to as a docking station. Multipleconfigurations of the docking station are provided so as to becompatible with any home, such as older and newer homes. However, all ofthe docking stations include a standard head-connection arrangement,such that any head unit can be removably attached to any dockingstation. Thus, in some embodiments, the docking stations are interfacesthat serve as physical connections to the structure and the voltagewiring of the homes, and the interchangeable head units contain all ofthe sensors, processors, user interfaces, the batteries, and otherfunctional components of the devices.

Many different commercial and functional possibilities for provisioning,maintenance, and upgrade are possible. For example, after years of usingany particular head unit, a user may be able to buy a new version of thehead unit and simply plug it into the old docking station. There arealso many different versions for the head units, such as low-costversions with few features, and then a progression ofincreasingly-capable versions, up to and including extremely fancy headunits with a large number of features. Thus, it should be appreciatedthat the various versions of the head units can all be interchangeable,with any of them working when placed into any docking station. This canadvantageously encourage sharing and re-deployment of old head units—forexample, when an important high-capability head unit, such as a hazarddetector, is replaced by a new version of the head unit, then the oldhead unit can be re-deployed to a backroom or basement, etc. Accordingto embodiments, when first plugged into a docking station, the head unitcan ask the user (by 2D LCD display, 2D/3D holographic projection, voiceinteraction, etc.) a few simple questions such as, “Where am I” and theuser can indicate “living room”, “kitchen” and so forth.

The smart-home environment 100 may also include communication withdevices outside of the physical home but within a proximate geographicalrange of the home. For example, the smart-home environment 100 mayinclude a pool heater monitor 114 that communicates a current pooltemperature to other devices within the smart-home environment 100 orreceives commands for controlling the pool temperature. Similarly, thesmart-home environment 100 may include an irrigation monitor 116 thatcommunicates information regarding irrigation systems within thesmart-home environment 100 and/or receives control information forcontrolling such irrigation systems. According to embodiments, analgorithm is provided for considering the geographic location of thesmart-home environment 100, such as based on the zip code or geographiccoordinates of the home. The geographic information is then used toobtain data helpful for determining optimal times for watering, suchdata may include sun location information, temperature, due point, soiltype of the land on which the home is located, etc.

By virtue of network connectivity, one or more of the smart-home devicesof FIG. 1 can further enable a user to interact with the device even ifthe user is not proximate to the device. For example, a user cancommunicate with a device using a computer (e.g., a desktop computer,laptop computer, or tablet) or other portable electronic device (e.g., asmartphone) 166. A webpage or application program can be configured toreceive communications from the user and control the device based on thecommunications and/or to present information about the device'soperation to the user. For example, the user can view a current setpointtemperature for a device and adjust it using a computer. The user can bein the structure during this remote communication or outside thestructure.

As discussed, users can control the smart thermostat and other smartdevices in the smart-home environment 100 using a network-connectedcomputer or portable electronic device 166. In some examples, some orall of the occupants (e.g., individuals who live in the home) canregister their device 166 with the smart-home environment 100. Suchregistration can be made at a central server to authenticate theoccupant and/or the device as being associated with the home and to givepermission to the occupant to use the device to control the smartdevices in the home. An occupant can use their registered device 166 toremotely control the smart devices of the home, such as when theoccupant is at work or on vacation. The occupant may also use theirregistered device to control the smart devices when the occupant isactually located inside the home, such as when the occupant is sittingon a couch inside the home. It should be appreciated that instead of orin addition to registering devices 166, the smart-home environment 100makes inferences about which individuals live in the home and aretherefore occupants and which devices 166 are associated with thoseindividuals. As such, the smart-home environment “learns” who is anoccupant and permits the devices 166 associated with those individualsto control the smart devices of the home.

In some instances, guests desire to control the smart devices. Forexample, the smart-home environment may receive communication from anunregistered mobile device of an individual inside of the home, wheresaid individual is not recognized as an occupant of the home. Forexample, a smart-home environment may receive communication from amobile device of an individual who is known to be or who is registeredas a guest or determined to be on a common network (e.g., SSID WiFinetwork) as the smart devices.

According to embodiments, a guest-layer of controls can be provided toguests of the smart-home environment 100. The guest-layer of controlsgives guests access to basic controls (e.g., a judicially selectedsubset of features of the smart devices), such as temperatureadjustments, but it locks out other functionalities. The guest layer ofcontrols can be thought of as a “safe sandbox” in which guests havelimited controls, but they do not have access to more advanced controlsthat could fundamentally alter, undermine, damage, or otherwise impairthe occupant-desired operation of the smart devices. For example, theguest layer of controls may not permit the guest to adjust the heat-pumplockout temperature.

A use case example of this is when a guest is in a smart home, the guestcould walk up to the thermostat and turn the dial manually, but theguest may not want to walk around the house “hunting” the thermostat,especially at night while the home is dark and others are sleeping.Further, the guest may not want to go through the hassle of downloadingthe necessary application to their device for remotely controlling thethermostat. In fact, the guest may not have the home owner's logincredentials, etc., and therefore cannot remotely control the thermostatvia such an application. Accordingly, according to embodiments of thedisclosure, the guest can open a mobile browser on their mobile device,type a keyword, such as “NEST” into the URL field and tap “Go” or“Search”, etc. In response, the device presents the guest with a userinterface which allows the guest to move the target temperature betweena limited range, such as 65 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit. As discussed, theuser interface provides a guest layer of controls that are limited tobasic functions. The guest cannot change the target humidity, modes, orview energy history.

According to embodiments, to enable guests to access the user interfacethat provides the guest layer of controls, a local webserver is providedthat is accessible in the local area network (LAN). It does not requirea password, because physical presence inside the home is establishedreliably enough by the guest's presence on the LAN. In some embodiments,during installation of the smart device, such as the smart thermostat,the home owner is asked if they want to enable a Local Web Applicationprogram (LWA) on the smart device. In some scenarios, business ownerswill likely say no; home owners will likely say yes. When the LWA optionis selected, the smart device broadcasts to the LAN that the abovereferenced keyword, such as “NEST”, is now a host alias for its localweb server. Thus, in such embodiments, no matter whose home a guest goesto, that same keyword (e.g., “NEST”) is always the URL you use to accessthe LWA, provided the smart device is purchased from the samemanufacturer. Further, according to embodiments, if there is more thanone smart device on the LAN, the second and subsequent smart devices donot offer to set up another LWA. Instead, they register themselves astarget candidates with the master LWA. And in this case the LWA userwould be asked which smart device they want to change the temperature onbefore getting the simplified user interface for the particular smartdevice they choose.

According to embodiments, a guest layer of controls may also be providedto users by means other than a device 166. For example, the smartdevice, such as the smart thermostat, may be equipped withwalkup-identification technology (e.g., face recognition, RFID,ultrasonic sensors) that “fingerprints” or creates a “signature” for theoccupants of the home. The walkup-identification technology can be thesame as or similar to the fingerprinting and signature creatingtechniques described in other sections of this application. Inoperation, when a person who does not live in the home or is otherwisenot registered with the smart home or whose fingerprint or signature isnot recognized by the smart home “walks up” to a smart device, the smartdevice provides the guest with the guest layer of controls, rather thanfull controls. For example, in some embodiments, the guest layer ofcontrols may block activation of a smart drill without a higher layer ofcontrols.

As described below, the smart thermostat and other smart devices “learn”by observing occupant behavior. For example, the smart thermostat learnsoccupants' preferred temperature set-points for mornings and evenings,and it learns when the occupants are asleep or awake, as well as whenthe occupants are typically away or at home, for example. According toembodiments, when a guest controls the smart devices, such as the smartthermostat, the smart devices do not “learn” from the guest. Thisprevents the guest's adjustments and controls from affecting the learnedpreferences of the occupants.

According to some embodiments, a smart television remote control isprovided. The smart remote control recognizes occupants by thumbprint,visual identification, RFID, etc., and it recognizes a user as a guestor as someone belonging to a particular class having limited control andaccess (e.g., child). Upon recognizing the user as a guest or someonebelonging to a limited class, the smart remote control only permits thatuser to view a subset of channels and to make limited adjustments to thesettings of the television and other devices. For example, a guestcannot adjust the digital video recorder (DVR) settings, and a child islimited to viewing child-appropriate programming.

According to some embodiments, similar controls are provided for otherinstruments, utilities, and devices in the house. For example, sinks,bathtubs, and showers can be controlled by smart spigots that recognizeusers as guests or as children and therefore prevent water fromexceeding a designated temperature that is considered safe.

In some embodiments, in addition to containing processing and sensingcapabilities, each of the devices 102, 104, 106, 107, 108, 110, 112,114, and 116 (collectively referred to as “the smart devices”) iscapable of data communications and information sharing with any other ofthe smart devices, as well as to any central server or cloud-computingsystem or any other device that is network-connected anywhere in theworld. The data communications can be carried out using any of a varietyof custom or standard wireless protocols (e.g., 802.11 such as Wi-Fi,802.15.4 such as ZigBee, 6LoWPAN, or 802.15.1 such as Bluetooth) and/orany of a variety of custom or standard wired protocols (CAT6 Ethernet,HomePlug, etc.) In some embodiments,

According to embodiments, all or some of the smart devices can serve aswireless or wired repeaters. For example, a first one of the smartdevices can communicate with a second one of the smart device via awireless router 160. The smart devices can further communicate with eachother via a connection to a network, such as the Internet 162. Throughthe Internet 162, the smart devices can communicate with a centralserver or a cloud-computing system 164. The central server orcloud-computing system 164 can be associated with a manufacturer,support entity, or service provider associated with the device. For someembodiments, a user may be able to contact customer support using adevice itself rather than needing to use other communication means suchas a telephone or Internet-connected computer. Further, software updatescan be automatically sent from the central server or cloud-computingsystem 164 to devices (e.g., when available, when purchased, or atroutine intervals).

According to embodiments, the smart devices combine to create a meshnetwork of spokesman and low-power nodes in the smart-home environment100, where some of the smart devices are “spokesman” nodes and othersare “low-powered” nodes. Some of the smart devices in the smart-homeenvironment 100 are battery powered, while others have a regular andreliable power source, such as by connecting to wiring (e.g., to 120Vline voltage wires) behind the walls 154 of the smart-home environment.The smart devices that have a regular and reliable power source arereferred to as “spokesman” nodes. These nodes are equipped with thecapability of using any wireless protocol or manner to facilitatebidirectional communication with any of a variety of other devices inthe smart-home environment 100 as well as with the central server orcloud-computing system 164. On the other hand, the devices that arebattery powered are referred to as “low-power” nodes. These nodes tendto be smaller than spokesman nodes and may only communicate usingwireless protocols that requires very little power, such as Zigbee,6LoWPAN, etc. Further, some, but not all, low-power nodes are incapableof bidirectional communication. These low-power nodes send messages, butthey are unable to “listen”. Thus, other devices in the smart-homeenvironment 100, such as the spokesman nodes, cannot send information tothese low-power listening-only nodes.

As described, the smart devices serve as low-power and spokesman nodesto create a mesh network in the smart-home environment 100. Individuallow-power nodes in the smart-home environment regularly send outmessages regarding what they are sensing, and the other low-powerednodes in the smart-home environment—in addition to sending out their ownmessages—repeat the messages, thereby causing the messages to travelfrom node to node (i.e., device to device) throughout the smart-homeenvironment 100. The spokesman nodes in the smart-home environment 100are able to “drop down” to low-powered communication protocols toreceive these messages, translate the messages to other communicationprotocols, and send the translated messages to other spokesman nodesand/or the central server or cloud-computing system 164. Thus, thelow-powered nodes using low-power communication protocols are able sendmessages across the entire smart-home environment 100 as well as overthe Internet 162 to the central server or cloud-computing system 164.According to embodiments, the mesh network enables the central server orcloud-computing system 164 regularly receive data from all of the smartdevices in the home, make inferences based on the data, and sendcommands back to one of the smart devices to accomplish some of thesmart-home objectives described herein.

As described, the spokesman nodes and some of the low-powered nodes arecapable of “listening”. Accordingly, users, other devices, and thecentral server or cloud-computing system 164 can communicate controls tothe low-powered nodes. For example, a user can use the portableelectronic device (e.g., a smartphone) 166 to send commands over theInternet to the central server or cloud-computing system 164, which thenrelays the commands to the spokesman nodes in the smart-home environment100. The spokesman nodes drop down to a low-power protocol tocommunicate the commands to the low-power nodes throughout thesmart-home environment, as well as to other spokesman nodes that did notreceive the commands directly from the central server or cloud-computingsystem 164.

An example of a low-power node is a smart nightlight 170. In addition tohousing a light source, the smart nightlight 170 houses an occupancysensor, such as an ultrasonic or passive IR sensor, and an ambient lightsensor, such as a photoresistor or a single-pixel sensor that measureslight in the room. In some embodiments, the smart nightlight 170 isconfigured to activate the light source when its ambient light sensordetects that the room is dark and when its occupancy sensor detects thatsomeone is in the room. In other embodiments, the smart nightlight 170is simply configured to activate the light source when its ambient lightsensor detects that the room is dark. Further, according to embodiments,the smart nightlight 170 includes a low-power wireless communicationchip (e.g., ZigBee chip) that regularly sends out messages regarding theoccupancy of the room and the amount of light in the room, includinginstantaneous messages coincident with the occupancy sensor detectingthe presence of a person in the room. As mentioned above, these messagesmay be sent wirelessly, using the mesh network, from node to node (i.e.,smart device to smart device) within the smart-home environment 100 aswell as over the Internet 162 to the central server or cloud-computingsystem 164.

Other examples of low-powered nodes include battery-operated versions ofthe smart hazard detectors 104. These smart hazard detectors 104 areoften located in an area without access to constant and reliable powerand, as discussed in detail below, may include any number and type ofsensors, such as smoke/fire/heat sensors, carbon monoxide/dioxidesensors, occupancy/motion sensors, ambient light sensors, temperaturesensors, humidity sensors, and the like. Furthermore, smart hazarddetectors 104 can send messages that correspond to each of therespective sensors to the other devices and the central server orcloud-computing system 164, such as by using the mesh network asdescribed above.

Examples of spokesman nodes include smart doorbells 106, smartthermostats 102, smart wall switches 108, and smart wall plugs 110.These devices 102, 106, 108, and 110 are often located near andconnected to a reliable power source, and therefore can include morepower-consuming components, such as one or more communication chipscapable of bidirectional communication in any variety of protocols.

In some embodiments, these low-powered and spokesman nodes (e.g.,devices 102, 104, 106, 107, 108, 110, 112, and 170) may function as“tripwires” for an alarm system in the smart-home environment. Forexample, in the event a perpetrator circumvents detection by alarmsensors located at windows, doors, and other entry points of thesmart-home environment 100, the alarm could be triggered upon receivingan occupancy, motion, heat, sound, etc. message from one or more of thelow-powered and spokesman nodes in the mesh network. For example, uponreceiving a message from a smart nightlight 170 indicating the presenceof a person, the central server or cloud-computing system 164 or someother device could trigger an alarm, provided the alarm is armed at thetime of detection. Thus, the alarm system could be enhanced by variouslow-powered and spokesman nodes located throughout the smart-homeenvironment 100. In this example, a user could enhance the security ofthe smart-home environment 100 by buying and installing extra smartnightlights 170.

In some embodiments, the mesh network can be used to automatically turnon and off lights as a person transitions from room to room. Forexample, the low-powered and spokesman nodes (e.g., devices 102, 104,106, 107, 108, 110, 112, and 170) detect the person's movement throughthe smart-home environment and communicate corresponding messagesthrough the mesh network. Using the messages that indicate which roomsare occupied, the central server or cloud-computing system 164 or someother device activates and deactivates the smart wall switches 108 toautomatically provide light as the person moves from room to room in thesmart-home environment 100. Further, users may provide pre-configurationinformation that indicates which smart wall plugs 110 provide power tolamps and other light sources, such as the smart nightlight 170.Alternatively, this mapping of light sources to wall plugs 110 can bedone automatically (e.g., the smart wall plugs 110 detect when a lightsource is plugged into it, and it sends a corresponding message to thecentral server or cloud-computing system 164). Using this mappinginformation in combination with messages that indicate which rooms areoccupied, the central server or cloud-computing system 164 or some otherdevice activates and deactivates the smart wall plugs 110 that providepower to lamps and other light sources so as to track the person'smovement and provide light as the person moves from room to room.

In some embodiments, the mesh network of low-powered and spokesman nodescan be used to provide exit lighting in the event of an emergency oremergency drills. In some instances, to facilitate this, users providepre-configuration information that indicates exit routes in thesmart-home environment 100. For example, for each room in the house, theuser may provide a map of the best exit route depending on availabilityof the route. In some situations the route may be blocked by a hazard,and an alternate route may be illuminated and indicated, if available.It should be appreciated that instead of a user providing thisinformation, the central server or cloud-computing system 164 or someother device could automatically determine the routes using uploadedmaps, diagrams, architectural drawings of the smart-home house, as wellas using a map generated based on positional information obtained fromthe nodes of the mesh network (e.g., positional information from thedevices is used to construct a map of the house). In operation, when analarm is activated (e.g., when one or more of the smart hazard detector104 detects smoke and activates an alarm), the central server orcloud-computing system 164 or some other device uses occupancyinformation obtained from the low-powered and spokesman nodes todetermine which rooms are occupied and then turns on lights (e.g.,nightlights 170, wall switches 108, wall plugs 110 that power lamps,etc.) along the exit routes from the occupied rooms so as to provideemergency exit lighting.

Further included and illustrated in the smart-home environment 100 ofFIG. 1 are service robots 162 each configured to carry out, in anautonomous manner, any of a variety of household tasks. For someembodiments, the service robots 162 can be respectively configured toperform floor sweeping, floor washing, etc. in a manner similar to thatof known commercially available devices such as the ROOMBA™ and SCOOBA™products sold by iRobot, Inc. of Bedford, Mass. Tasks such as floorsweeping and floor washing can be considered as “away” or “while-away”tasks for purposes of the instant description, as it is generally moredesirable for these tasks to be performed when the occupants are notpresent. For other embodiments, one or more of the service robots 162are configured to perform tasks such as playing music for an occupant,serving as a localized thermostat for an occupant, serving as alocalized air monitor/purifier for an occupant, serving as a localizedbaby monitor, serving as a localized hazard detector for an occupant,and so forth, it being generally more desirable for such tasks to becarried out in the immediate presence of the human occupant. Forpurposes of the instant description, such tasks can be considered as“human-facing” or “human-centric” tasks.

When serving as a localized thermostat for an occupant, a particular oneof the service robots 162 can be considered to be facilitating what canbe called a “personal comfort-area network” for the occupant, with theobjective being to keep the occupant's immediate space at a comfortabletemperature wherever that occupant may be located in the home. This canbe contrasted with conventional wall-mounted room thermostats, whichhave the more attenuated objective of keeping a statically-definedstructural space at a comfortable temperature. According to oneembodiment, the localized-thermostat service robot 162 is configured tomove itself into the immediate presence (e.g., within five feet) of aparticular occupant who has settled into a particular location in thehome (e.g. in the dining room to eat their breakfast and read the news).The localized-thermostat service robot 162 includes a temperaturesensor, a processor, and wireless communication components configuredsuch that control communications with the HVAC system, either directlyor through a wall-mounted wirelessly communicating thermostat coupled tothe HVAC system, are maintained and such that the temperature in theimmediate vicinity of the occupant is maintained at their desired level.If the occupant then moves and settles into another location (e.g. tothe living room couch to watch television), the localized-thermostatservice robot 162 proceeds to move and park itself next to the couch andkeep that particular immediate space at a comfortable temperature.

Technologies by which the localized-thermostat service robot 162 (and/orthe larger smart-home system of FIG. 1) can identify and locate theoccupant whose personal-area space is to be kept at a comfortabletemperature can include, but are not limited to, RFID sensing (e.g.,person having an RFID bracelet, RFID necklace, or RFID key fob),synthetic vision techniques (e.g., video cameras and face recognitionprocessors), audio techniques (e.g., voice, sound pattern, vibrationpattern recognition), ultrasound sensing/imaging techniques, andinfrared or near-field communication (NFC) techniques (e.g., personwearing an infrared or NFC-capable smartphone), along with rules-basedinference engines or artificial intelligence techniques that draw usefulconclusions from the sensed information (e.g., if there is only a singleoccupant present in the home, then that is the person whose immediatespace should be kept at a comfortable temperature, and the selection ofthe desired comfortable temperature should correspond to that occupant'sparticular stored profile).

When serving as a localized air monitor/purifier for an occupant, aparticular service robot 162 can be considered to be facilitating whatcan be called a “personal health-area network” for the occupant, withthe objective being to keep the air quality in the occupant's immediatespace at healthy levels. Alternatively or in conjunction therewith,other health-related functions can be provided, such as monitoring thetemperature or heart rate of the occupant (e.g., using finely remotesensors, near-field communication with on-person monitors, etc.). Whenserving as a localized hazard detector for an occupant, a particularservice robot 162 can be considered to be facilitating what can becalled a “personal safety-area network” for the occupant, with theobjective being to ensure there is no excessive carbon monoxide, smoke,fire, etc., in the immediate space of the occupant. Methods analogous tothose described above for personal comfort-area networks in terms ofoccupant identifying and tracking are likewise applicable for personalhealth-area network and personal safety-area network embodiments.

According to some embodiments, the above-referenced facilitation ofpersonal comfort-area networks, personal health-area networks, personalsafety-area networks, and/or other such human-facing functionalities ofthe service robots 162, are further enhanced by logical integration withother smart sensors in the home according to rules-based inferencingtechniques or artificial intelligence techniques for achieving betterperformance of those human-facing functionalities and/or for achievingthose goals in energy-conserving or other resource-conserving ways.Thus, for one embodiment relating to personal health-area networks, theair monitor/purifier service robot 162 can be configured to detectwhether a household pet is moving toward the currently settled locationof the occupant (e.g., using on-board sensors and/or by datacommunications with other smart-home sensors along with rules-basedinferencing/artificial intelligence techniques), and if so, the airpurifying rate is immediately increased in preparation for the arrivalof more airborne pet dander. For another embodiment relating to personalsafety-area networks, the hazard detector service robot 162 can beadvised by other smart-home sensors that the temperature and humiditylevels are rising in the kitchen, which is nearby to the occupant'scurrent dining room location, and responsive to this advisory the hazarddetector service robot 162 will temporarily raise a hazard detectionthreshold, such as a smoke detection threshold, under an inference thatany small increases in ambient smoke levels will most likely be due tocooking activity and not due to a genuinely hazardous condition.

The above-described “human-facing” and “away” functionalities can beprovided, without limitation, by multiple distinct service robots 162having respective dedicated ones of such functionalities, by a singleservice robot 162 having an integration of two or more different ones ofsuch functionalities, and/or any combinations thereof (including theability for a single service robot 162 to have both “away” and “humanfacing” functionalities) without departing from the scope of the presentteachings. Electrical power can be provided by virtue of rechargeablebatteries or other rechargeable methods, with FIG. 1 illustrating anexemplary out-of-the-way docking station 164 to which the service robots162 will automatically dock and recharge its batteries (if needed)during periods of inactivity. Preferably, each service robot 162includes wireless communication components that facilitate datacommunications with one or more of the other wirelessly communicatingsmart-home sensors of FIG. 1 and/or with one or more other servicerobots 162 (e.g., using Wi-Fi, Zigbee, Z-Wave, 6LoWPAN, etc.), and oneor more of the smart-home devices of FIG. 1 can be in communication witha remote server over the Internet. Alternatively or in conjunctiontherewith, each service robot 162 can be configured to communicatedirectly with a remote server by virtue of cellular telephonecommunications, satellite communications, 3G/4G network datacommunications, or other direct communication method.

Provided according to some embodiments are systems and methods relatingto the integration of the service robot(s) 162 with home securitysensors and related functionalities of the smart home system. Theembodiments are particularly applicable and advantageous when appliedfor those service robots 162 that perform “away” functionalities or thatotherwise are desirable to be active when the home is unoccupied(hereinafter “away-service robots”). Included in the embodiments aremethods and systems for ensuring that home security systems, intrusiondetection systems, and/or occupancy-sensitive environmental controlsystems (for example, occupancy-sensitive automated setback thermostatsthat enter into a lower-energy-using condition when the home isunoccupied) are not erroneously triggered by the away-service robots.

Provided according to one embodiment is a home automation and securitysystem (e.g., as shown in FIG. 1) that is remotely monitored by amonitoring service by virtue of automated systems (e.g., cloud-basedservers or other central servers, hereinafter “central server”) that arein data communications with one or more network-connected elements ofthe home automation and security system. The away-service robots areconfigured to be in operative data communication with the centralserver, and are configured such that they remain in a non-away-servicestate (e.g., a dormant state at their docking station) unless permissionis granted from the central server (e.g., by virtue of an“away-service-OK” message from the central server) to commence theiraway-service activities. An away-state determination made by the system,which can be arrived at (i) exclusively by local on-premises smartdevice(s) based on occupancy sensor data, (ii) exclusively by thecentral server based on received occupancy sensor data and/or based onreceived proximity-related information such as GPS coordinates from usersmartphones or automobiles, or (iii) any combination of (i) and (ii) canthen trigger the granting of away-service permission to the away-servicerobots by the central server. During the course of the away-servicerobot activity, during which the away-service robots may continuouslydetect and send their in-home location coordinates to the centralserver, the central server can readily filter signals from the occupancysensing devices to distinguish between the away-service robot activityversus any unexpected intrusion activity, thereby avoiding a falseintrusion alarm condition while also ensuring that the home is secure.Alternatively or in conjunction therewith, the central server mayprovide filtering data (such as an expected occupancy-sensing profiletriggered by the away-service robots) to the occupancy sensing nodes orassociated processing nodes of the smart home, such that the filteringis performed at the local level. Although somewhat less secure, it wouldalso be within the scope of the present teachings for the central serverto temporarily disable the occupancy sensing equipment for the durationof the away-service robot activity.

According to another embodiment, functionality similar to that of thecentral server in the above example can be performed by an on-sitecomputing device such as a dedicated server computer, a “master” homeautomation console or panel, or as an adjunct function of one or more ofthe smart-home devices of FIG. 1. In such an embodiment, there would beno dependency on a remote service provider to provide the“away-service-OK” permission to the away-service robots and thefalse-alarm-avoidance filtering service or filter information for thesensed intrusion detection signals. According to other embodiments,there are provided methods and systems for implementing away-servicerobot functionality while avoiding false home security alarms and falseoccupancy-sensitive environmental controls without the requirement of asingle overall event orchestrator. For purposes of the simplicity in thepresent disclosure, the home security systems and/or occupancy-sensitiveenvironmental controls that would be triggered by the motion, noise,vibrations, or other disturbances of the away-service robot activity arereferenced simply as “activity sensing systems,” and when so triggeredwill yield a “disturbance-detected” outcome representative of the falsetrigger (for example, an alarm message to a security service, or an“arrival” determination for an automated setback thermostat that causesthe home to be heated or cooled to a more comfortable “occupied”setpoint temperature). According to one embodiment, the away-servicerobots are configured to emit a standard ultrasonic sound throughout thecourse of their away-service activity, the activity sensing systems areconfigured to detect that standard ultrasonic sound, and the activitysensing systems are further configured such that no disturbance-detectedoutcome will occur for as long as that standard ultrasonic sound isdetected. For other embodiments, the away-service robots are configuredto emit a standard notification signal throughout the course of theiraway-service activity, the activity sensing systems are configured todetect that standard notification signal, and the activity sensingsystems are further configured such that no disturbance-detected outcomewill occur for as long as that standard notification signal is detected,wherein the standard notification signal comprises one or more of: anoptical notifying signal; an audible notifying signal; an infrarednotifying signal; an infrasonic notifying signal; a wirelesslytransmitted data notification signal (e.g., an IP broadcast, multicast,or unicast notification signal, or a notification message sent in anTCP/IP two-way communication session).

According to some embodiments, the notification signals sent by theaway-service robots to the activity sensing systems are authenticatedand encrypted such that the notifications cannot be learned andreplicated by a potential burglar. Any of a variety of knownencryption/authentication schemes can be used to ensure such datasecurity including, but not limited to, methods involving third partydata security services or certificate authorities. For some embodiments,a permission request-response model can be used, wherein any particularaway-service robot requests permission from each activity sensing systemin the home when it is ready to perform its away-service tasks, and doesnot initiate such activity until receiving a “yes” or “permissiongranted” message from each activity sensing system (or from a singleactivity sensing system serving as a “spokesman” for all of the activitysensing systems). One advantage of the described embodiments that do notrequire a central event orchestrator is that there can (optionally) bemore of an arms-length relationship between the supplier(s) of the homesecurity/environmental control equipment, on the one hand, and thesupplier(s) of the away-service robot(s), on the other hand, as it isonly required that there is the described standard one-way notificationprotocol or the described standard two-way request/permission protocolto be agreed upon by the respective suppliers.

According to still other embodiments, the activity sensing systems areconfigured to detect sounds, vibrations, RF emissions, or otherdetectable environmental signals or “signatures” that are intrinsicallyassociated with the away-service activity of each away-service robot,and are further configured such that no disturbance-detected outcomewill occur for as long as that particular detectable signal orenvironmental “signature” is detected. By way of example, a particularkind of vacuum-cleaning away-service robot may emit a specific sound orRF signature. For one embodiment, the away-service environmentalsignatures for each of a plurality of known away-service robots arestored in the memory of the activity sensing systems based onempirically collected data, the environmental signatures being suppliedwith the activity sensing systems and periodically updated by a remoteupdate server. For another embodiment, the activity sensing systems canbe placed into a “training mode” for the particular home in which theyare installed, wherein they “listen” and “learn” the particularenvironmental signatures of the away-service robots for that home duringthat training session, and thereafter will suppress disturbance-detectedoutcomes for intervals in which those environmental signatures areheard.

For still another embodiment, which is particularly useful when theactivity sensing system is associated with occupancy-sensitiveenvironmental control equipment rather than a home security system, theactivity sensing system is configured to automatically learn theenvironmental signatures for the away-service robots by virtue ofautomatically performing correlations over time between detectedenvironmental signatures and detected occupancy activity. By way ofexample, for one embodiment an intelligent automatednonoccupancy-triggered setback thermostat such as the Nest LearningThermostat can be configured to constantly monitor for audible and RFactivity as well as to perform infrared-based occupancy detection. Inparticular view of the fact that the environmental signature of theaway-service robot will remain relatively constant from event to event,and in view of the fact that the away-service events will likely either(a) themselves be triggered by some sort of nonoccupancy condition asmeasured by the away-service robots themselves, or (b) occur at regulartimes of day, there will be patterns in the collected data by which theevents themselves will become apparent and for which the environmentalsignatures can be readily learned. Generally speaking, for thisautomatic-learning embodiment in which the environmental signatures ofthe away-service robots are automatically learned without requiring userinteraction, it is more preferable that a certain number of falsetriggers be tolerable over the course of the learning process.Accordingly, this automatic-learning embodiment is more preferable forapplication in occupancy-sensitive environmental control equipment (suchas an automated setback thermostat) rather than home security systemsfor the reason that a few false occupancy determinations may cause a fewinstances of unnecessary heating or cooling, but will not otherwise haveany serious consequences, whereas false home security alarms may havemore serious consequences.

According to embodiments, technologies including the sensors of thesmart devices located in the mesh network of the smart-home environmentin combination with rules-based inference engines or artificialintelligence provided at the central server or cloud-computing system164 are used to provide a personal “smart alarm clock” for individualoccupants of the home. For example, user-occupants can communicate withthe central server or cloud-computing system 164 via their mobiledevices 166 to access an interface for the smart alarm clock. There,occupants can turn on their “smart alarm clock” and input a wake timefor the next day and/or for additional days. In some embodiments, theoccupant may have the option of setting a specific wake time for eachday of the week, as well as the option of setting some or all of theinputted wake times to “repeat”. Artificial intelligence will be used toconsider the occupant's response to these alarms when they go off andmake inferences about the user's preferred sleep patterns over time.

According to embodiments, the smart device in the smart-home environment100 that happens to be closest to the occupant when the occupant fallsasleep will be the device that transmits messages regarding when theoccupant stopped moving, from which the central server orcloud-computing system 164 will make inferences about where and when theoccupant prefers to sleep. This closest smart device will as be thedevice that sounds the alarm to wake the occupant. In this manner, the“smart alarm clock” will follow the occupant throughout the house, bytracking the individual occupants based on their “unique signature”,which is determined based on data obtained from sensors located in thesmart devices. For example, the sensors include ultrasonic sensors,passive IR sensors, and the like. The unique signature is based on acombination of walking gate, patterns of movement, voice, height, size,etc. It should be appreciated that facial recognition may also be used.

According to an embodiment, the wake times associated with the “smartalarm clock” are used by the smart thermostat 102 to control the HVAC inan efficient manner so as to pre-heat or cool the house to theoccupant's desired “sleeping” and “awake” temperature settings. Thepreferred settings can be learned over time, such as by observing whichtemperature the occupant sets the thermostat to before going to sleepand which temperature the occupant sets the thermostat to upon wakingup.

According to an embodiment, a device is positioned proximate to theoccupant's bed, such as on an adjacent nightstand, and collects data asthe occupant sleeps using noise sensors, motion sensors (e.g.,ultrasonic, IR, and optical), etc. Data may be obtained by the othersmart devices in the room as well. Such data may include the occupant'sbreathing patterns, heart rate, movement, etc. Inferences are made basedon this data in combination with data that indicates when the occupantactually wakes up. For example, if—on a regular basis—the occupant'sheart rate, breathing, and moving all increase by 5% to 10%, twenty tothirty minutes before the occupant wakes up each morning, thenpredictions can be made regarding when the occupant is going to wake.Other devices in the home can use these predictions to provide othersmart-home objectives, such as adjusting the smart thermostat 102 so asto pre-heat or cool the home to the occupant's desired setting beforethe occupant wakes up. Further, these predictions can be used to set the“smart alarm clock” for the occupant, to turn on lights, etc.

According to embodiments, technologies including the sensors of thesmart devices located throughout the smart-home environment incombination with rules-based inference engines or artificialintelligence provided at the central server or cloud-computing system164 are used to detect or monitor the progress of Alzheimer's Disease.For example, the unique signatures of the occupants are used to trackthe individual occupants' movement throughout the smart-home environment100. This data can be aggregated and analyzed to identify patternsindicative of Alzheimer's. Oftentimes, individuals with Alzheimer's havedistinctive patterns of migration in their homes. For example, a personwill walk to the kitchen and stand there for a while, then to the livingroom and stand there for a while, and then back to the kitchen. Thispattern will take about thirty minutes, and then the person will repeatthe pattern. According to embodiments, the remote servers or cloudcomputing architectures 164 analyze the person's migration datacollected by the mesh network of the smart-home environment to identifysuch patterns.

FIG. 2 illustrates a network-level view of an extensible devices andservices platform 200 with which a plurality of smart-home environments,such as the smart-home environment 100 of FIG. 1, can be integrated. Theextensible devices and services platform 200 includes remote servers orcloud computing architectures 164. Each of the intelligent,network-connected devices 102, 104, 106, 107, 108, 110, 112, 114, and116 from FIG. 1 (identified simply as “smart devices” in FIGS. 2-3herein) can communicate with the remote servers or cloud computingarchitectures 164. For example, a connection to the Internet 162 can beestablished either directly (for example, using 3G/4G connectivity to awireless carrier), through a wireless mesh network 212 (which can be ascheme ranging from a simple wireless router, for example, up to andincluding an intelligent, dedicated whole-home control node), or throughany combination thereof.

Although in some examples provided herein, the devices and servicesplatform 200 communicates with and collects data from the smart devicesof smart-home environment 100 of FIG. 1, it should be appreciated thatthe devices and services platform 200 communicates with and collectsdata from a plurality of smart-home environments across the world. Forexample, the central server or cloud-computing system 164 can collecthome data 202 from the devices of one or more smart-home environments,where the devices can routinely transmit home data or can transmit homedata in specific instances (e.g., when a device queries the home data202). Thus, the devices and services platform 200 routinely collectsdata from homes across the world. As described, the collected home data202 includes, for example, power consumption data, occupancy data, HVACsettings and usage data, carbon monoxide levels data, carbon dioxidelevels data, volatile organic compounds levels data, sleeping scheduledata, cooking schedule data, inside and outside temperature humiditydata, television viewership data, inside and outside noise level data,etc.

The central server or cloud-computing architecture 164 can furtherprovide one or more services 204. The services 204 can include, e.g.,software updates, customer support, sensor data collection/logging,remote access, remote or distributed control, or use suggestions (e.g.,based on collected home data 202 to improve performance, reduce utilitycost, etc.). Data associated with the services 204 can be stored at thecentral server or cloud-computing system 164 and the central server orthe cloud-computing system 164 can retrieve and transmit the data at anappropriate time (e.g., at regular intervals, upon receiving a requestfrom a user, etc.).

As illustrated in FIG. 2, an embodiment of the extensible devices andservices platform 200 includes a processing engine 206, which can beconcentrated at a single server or distributed among several differentcomputing entities without limitation. The processing engine 206 caninclude engines configured to receive data from devices of smart-homeenvironments (e.g., via the Internet or a hubbed network), to index thedata, to analyze the data and/or to generate statistics based on theanalysis or as part of the analysis. The analyzed data can be stored asderived home data 208.

Results of the analysis or statistics can thereafter be transmitted backto the device that provided home data used to derive the results, toother devices, to a server providing a webpage to a user of the device,or to other non-device entities. For example, use statistics, usestatistics relative to use of other devices, use patterns, and/orstatistics summarizing sensor readings can be generated by theprocessing engine 206 and transmitted. The results or statistics can beprovided via the Internet 162. In this manner, the processing engine 206can be configured and programmed to derive a variety of usefulinformation from the home data 202. A single server can include one ormore engines.

The derived data can be highly beneficial at a variety of differentgranularities for a variety of useful purposes, ranging from explicitprogrammed control of the devices on a per-home, per-neighborhood, orper-region basis (for example, demand-response programs for electricalutilities), to the generation of inferential abstractions that canassist on a per-home basis (for example, an inference can be drawn thatthe homeowner has left for vacation and so security detection equipmentcan be put on heightened sensitivity), to the generation of statisticsand associated inferential abstractions that can be used for governmentor charitable purposes. For example, processing engine 206 can generatestatistics about device usage across a population of devices and sendthe statistics to device users, service providers or other entities(e.g., that have requested or may have provided monetary compensationfor the statistics).

According to some embodiments, the home data 202, the derived home data208, and/or another data can be used to create “automated neighborhoodsafety networks.” For example, in the event the central server orcloud-computing architecture 164 receives data indicating that aparticular home has been broken into, is experiencing a fire, or someother type of emergency event, an alarm is sent to other smart homes inthe “neighborhood.” In some instances, the central server orcloud-computing architecture 164 automatically identifies smart homeswithin a radius of the home experiencing the emergency and sends analarm to the identified homes. In such instances, the other homes in the“neighborhood” do not have to sign up for or register to be a part of asafety network, but instead are notified of an emergency based on theirproximity to the location of the emergency. This creates robust andevolving neighborhood security watch networks, such that if one person'shome is getting broken into, an alarm can be sent to nearby homes, suchas by audio announcements via the smart devices located in those homes.It should be appreciated that this can be an opt-in service and that, inaddition to or instead of the central server or cloud-computingarchitecture 164 selecting which homes to send alerts to, individualscan subscribe to participate in such networks and individuals canspecify which homes they want to receive alerts from. This can include,for example, the homes of family members who live in different cities,such that individuals can receive alerts when their loved ones in otherlocations are experiencing an emergency.

According to some embodiments, sound, vibration, and/or motion sensingcomponents of the smart devices are used to detect sound, vibration,and/or motion created by running water. Based on the detected sound,vibration, and/or motion, the central server or cloud-computingarchitecture 164 makes inferences about water usage in the home andprovides related services. For example, the central server orcloud-computing architecture 164 can run programs/algorithms thatrecognize what water sounds like and when it is running in the home.According to one embodiment, to map the various water sources of thehome, upon detecting running water, the central server orcloud-computing architecture 164 sends a message an occupant's mobiledevice asking if water is currently running or if water has beenrecently run in the home and, if so, which room and whichwater-consumption appliance (e.g., sink, shower, toilet, etc.) was thesource of the water. This enables the central server or cloud-computingarchitecture 164 to determine the “signature” or “fingerprint” of eachwater source in the home. This is sometimes referred to herein as “audiofingerprinting water usage.”

In one illustrative example, the central server or cloud-computingarchitecture 164 creates a signature for the toilet in the masterbathroom, and whenever that toilet is flushed, the central server orcloud-computing architecture 164 will know that the water usage at thattime is associated with that toilet. Thus, the central server orcloud-computing architecture 164 can track the water usage of thattoilet as well as each water-consumption application in the home. Thisinformation can be correlated to water bills or smart water meters so asto provide users with a breakdown of their water usage.

According to some embodiments, sound, vibration, and/or motion sensingcomponents of the smart devices are used to detect sound, vibration,and/or motion created by mice and other rodents as well as by termites,cockroaches, and other insects (collectively referred to as “pests”).Based on the detected sound, vibration, and/or motion, the centralserver or cloud-computing architecture 164 makes inferences aboutpest-detection in the home and provides related services. For example,the central server or cloud-computing architecture 164 can runprograms/algorithms that recognize what certain pests sound like, howthey move, and/or the vibration they create, individually and/orcollectively. According to one embodiment, the central server orcloud-computing architecture 164 can determine the “signatures” ofparticular types of pests.

For example, in the event the central server or cloud-computingarchitecture 164 detects sounds that may be associated with pests, itnotifies the occupants of such sounds and suggests hiring a pest controlcompany. If it is confirmed that pests are indeed present, the occupantsinput to the central server or cloud-computing architecture 164 confirmsthat its detection was correct, along with details regarding theidentified pests, such as name, type, description, location, quantity,etc. This enables the central server or cloud-computing architecture 164to “tune” itself for better detection and create “signatures” or“fingerprints” for specific types of pests. For example, the centralserver or cloud-computing architecture 164 can use the tuning as well asthe signatures and fingerprints to detect pests in other homes, such asnearby homes that may be experiencing problems with the same pests.Further, for example, in the event that two or more homes in a“neighborhood” are experiencing problems with the same or similar typesof pests, the central server or cloud-computing architecture 164 canmake inferences that nearby homes may also have such problems or may besusceptible to having such problems, and it can send warning messages tothose homes to help facilitate early detection and prevention.

In some embodiments, to encourage innovation and research and toincrease products and services available to users, the devices andservices platform 200 expose a range of application programminginterfaces (APIs) 210 to third parties, such as charities 222,governmental entities 224 (e.g., the Food and Drug Administration or theEnvironmental Protection Agency), academic institutions 226 (e.g.,university researchers), businesses 228 (e.g., providing devicewarranties or service to related equipment, targeting advertisementsbased on home data), utility companies 230, and other third parties. TheAPIs 210 may be coupled to and permit third-party systems to communicatewith the central server or the cloud-computing system 164, including theservices 204, the processing engine 206, the home data 202, and thederived home data 208. For example, APIs 210 may allow applicationsexecuted by the third parties to initiate specific data processing tasksthat are executed by the central server or the cloud-computing system164, as well as to receive dynamic updates to the home data 202 and thederived home data 208.

For example, third parties can develop programs and/or applications,such as web or mobile apps that integrate with the central server or thecloud-computing system 164 to provide services and information to users.Such programs and application may be, for example, designed to helpusers reduce energy consumption, to preemptively service faultyequipment, to prepare for high service demands, to track past serviceperformance, etc., or to perform any of a variety of beneficialfunctions or tasks now known or hereinafter developed.

According to some embodiments, third-party applications make inferencesfrom the home data 202 and the derived home data 208, such inferencesmay include when are occupants home, when are they sleeping, when arethey cooking, when are they in the den watching television, and when dothey shower. The answers to these questions may help third-partiesbenefit consumers by providing them with interesting information,products and services as well as with providing them with targetedadvertisements.

In one example, a shipping company creates an application that makesinferences regarding when people are at home. The application uses theinferences to schedule deliveries for times when people will most likelybe at home. The application can also build delivery routes around thesescheduled times. This reduces the number of instances where the shippingcompany has to make multiple attempts to deliver packages, and itreduces the number of times consumers have to pick up their packagesfrom the shipping company.

FIG. 3 illustrates an abstracted functional view of the extensibledevices and services platform 200 of FIG. 2, with particular referenceto the processing engine 206 as well as devices, such as those of thesmart-home environment 100 of FIG. 1. Even though devices situated insmart-home environments will have an endless variety of differentindividual capabilities and limitations, they can all be thought of assharing common characteristics in that each of them is a data consumer302 (DC), a data source 304 (DS), a services consumer 306 (SC), and aservices source 308 (SS). Advantageously, in addition to providing theessential control information needed for the devices to achieve theirlocal and immediate objectives, the extensible devices and servicesplatform 200 can also be configured to harness the large amount of datathat is flowing out of these devices. In addition to enhancing oroptimizing the actual operation of the devices themselves with respectto their immediate functions, the extensible devices and servicesplatform 200 can be directed to “repurposing” that data in a variety ofautomated, extensible, flexible, and/or scalable ways to achieve avariety of useful objectives. These objectives may be predefined oradaptively identified based on, e.g., usage patterns, device efficiency,and/or user input (e.g., requesting specific functionality).

For example, FIG. 3 shows processing engine 206 as including a number ofparadigms 310. Processing engine 206 can include a managed servicesparadigm 310 a that monitors and manages primary or secondary devicefunctions. The device functions can include ensuring proper operation ofa device given user inputs, estimating that (e.g., and responding to aninstance in which) an intruder is or is attempting to be in a dwelling,detecting a failure of equipment coupled to the device (e.g., a lightbulb having burned out), implementing or otherwise responding to energydemand response events, or alerting a user of a current or predictedfuture event or characteristic. Processing engine 206 can furtherinclude an advertising/communication paradigm 310 b that estimatescharacteristics (e.g., demographic information), desires and/or productsof interest of a user based on device usage. Services, promotions,products or upgrades can then be offered or automatically provided tothe user. Processing engine 206 can further include a social paradigm310 c that uses information from a social network, provides informationto a social network (for example, based on device usage), and/orprocesses data associated with user and/or device interactions with thesocial network platform. For example, a user's status as reported totheir trusted contacts on the social network could be updated toindicate when they are home based on light detection, security systeminactivation or device usage detectors. As another example, a user maybe able to share device-usage statistics with other users. In yetanother example, a user may share HVAC settings that result in low powerbills and other users may download the HVAC settings to their smartthermostat 102 to reduce their power bills.

The processing engine 206 can include achallenges/rules/compliance/rewards paradigm 310d that informs a user ofchallenges, competitions, rules, compliance regulations and/or rewardsand/or that uses operation data to determine whether a challenge hasbeen met, a rule or regulation has been complied with and/or a rewardhas been earned. The challenges, rules or regulations can relate toefforts to conserve energy, to live safely (e.g., reducing exposure totoxins or carcinogens), to conserve money and/or equipment life, toimprove health, etc. For example, one challenge may involve participantsturning down their thermostat by one degree for one week. Those thatsuccessfully complete the challenge are rewarded, such as by coupons,virtual currency, status, etc. Regarding compliance, an example involvesa rental-property owner making a rule that no renters are permitted toaccess certain owner's rooms. The devices in the room having occupancysensors could send updates to the owner when the room is accessed.

The processing engine 206 can integrate or otherwise utilize extrinsicinformation 316 from extrinsic sources to improve the functioning of oneor more processing paradigms. Extrinsic information 316 can be used tointerpret data received from a device, to determine a characteristic ofthe environment near the device (e.g., outside a structure that thedevice is enclosed in), to determine services or products available tothe user, to identify a social network or social-network information, todetermine contact information of entities (e.g., public-service entitiessuch as an emergency-response team, the police or a hospital) near thedevice, etc., to identify statistical or environmental conditions,trends or other information associated with a home or neighborhood, andso forth.

An extraordinary range and variety of benefits can be brought about by,and fit within the scope of, the described extensible devices andservices platform 200, ranging from the ordinary to the profound. Thus,in one “ordinary” example, each bedroom of the smart-home environment100 can be provided with a smart wall switch 108, a smart wall plug 110,and/or smart hazard detectors 104, all or some of which include anoccupancy sensor, wherein the occupancy sensor is also capable ofinferring (e.g., by virtue of motion detection, facial recognition,audible sound patterns, etc.) whether the occupant is asleep or awake.If a serious fire event is sensed, the remote security/monitoringservice or fire department is advised of how many occupants there are ineach bedroom, and whether those occupants are still asleep (or immobile)or whether they have properly evacuated the bedroom. While this is, ofcourse, a very advantageous capability accommodated by the describedextensible devices and services platform, there can be substantiallymore “profound” examples that can truly illustrate the potential of alarger “intelligence” that can be made available. By way of perhaps amore “profound” example, the same bedroom occupancy data that is beingused for fire safety can also be “repurposed” by the processing engine206 in the context of a social paradigm of neighborhood childdevelopment and education. Thus, for example, the same bedroom occupancyand motion data discussed in the “ordinary” example can be collected andmade available (properly anonymized) for processing in which the sleeppatterns of schoolchildren in a particular ZIP code can be identifiedand tracked. Localized variations in the sleeping patterns of theschoolchildren may be identified and correlated, for example, todifferent nutrition programs in local schools.

Referring now to FIGS. 4A and 4B, illustrated is a hazard detector 400that may be used as part of a smart home environment 100 as previouslydescribed. FIG. 4A illustrates an exploded perspective view of thehazard detector 400, while FIG. 4B illustrates an assembled view of thesame hazard detector 400. In one embodiment, hazard detector 400 is asmoke detector that is configured to detect the presence of smoke andsound an alarm to audibly warn an occupant or occupants of the home orstructure of a potential fire or other danger. In other embodiments,hazard detector 400 may be a carbon monoxide detector, heat detector,and the like. In one embodiment, hazard detector 400 is a multi-sensingdetector that includes a smoke detector, carbon monoxide detector, heatdetector, motion detector, and the like. Many of the present teachingsare particularly advantageous for embodiments in which the hazarddetector 400 is a multi-sensing detector, particularly since combiningthe various sensing modes together into a single device can posesubstantial challenges with respect to one or more of devicecompactness, component powering, and overall component governance andcoordination.

For convenience in describing the embodiments herein, the device 400will be referred to hereinbelow as smart hazard detector or hazarddetector 400, although it should be realized that hazard detector 400may include various other devices and that the scope of the presentteachings is not necessarily limited to hazard detectors in which smokeis required as one of the anomalies to be detected. Thus, for example,depending on the particular context as would be apparent to a personskilled in the art upon reading the instant disclosure, one or more ofthe advantageous features and embodiments described herein may bereadily applicable to a multi-functional hazard sensor that detectscarbon monoxide and motion only, or pollen and motion only, or noisepollution and pollen only, and so forth. Nevertheless, the combining ofsmoke detection functionality with other sensing functions does bringabout one or more particularly problematic issues that are addressed byone or more of the present teachings.

In one embodiment, hazard detector 400 is a roughly square orrectangular shaped object having a width of approximately 120 to 134 mmand a thickness of approximately 38 mm. Stated differently, hazarddetector 400 is a multi-sensing unit having a fairly compact shape andsize that may be easily attached to a wall or ceiling of a home orstructure so as to be able, among other functionalities, to detect thepresence of smoke and alert an occupant therein of the potential firedanger. As shown in FIG. 4A, hazard detector 400 includes a mountingplate 410 that may be attached to a wall of the building or structure tosecure the hazard detector 400 thereto. Hazard detector 400 alsoincludes a back plate 420 that may be mounted to the mounting plate 410and a front casing 460 that may be coupled with or otherwise secured toback plate 420 to define a housing having an interior region withinwhich components of the hazard detector 400 are contained. A circuitboard 900 may be coupled with or attached to back plate 420. Variouscomponents may be mounted on circuit board 900. For example, a smokechamber 430 may be coupled with or mounted on circuit board 900 andconfigured to detect the presence of smoke. In one embodiment, smokechamber 430 may be mid-mounted relative to circuit board 900 so that airmay flow into smoke chamber 430 from a position above circuit board 900and below circuit board 900. A speaker 950 and alarm device (notnumbered) may also be mounted on circuit board 900 to audibly warn anoccupant of a potential fire danger when the presence of smoke isdetected via smoke chamber 430. Other components, such as a motionsensor, carbon monoxide sensor, microprocessor, and the like maylikewise be mounted on circuit board 900 as described herein.

In some embodiments, a protective plate 440 may be attached to orotherwise coupled with circuit board 900 to provide a visually pleasingappearance to the inner components of hazard detector 400 and/or tofunnel or direct airflow to smoke chamber 430. For example, when a userviews the internal components of hazard detector 400, such as throughvents in back plate 420, protective plate 440 may provide the appearanceof a relatively smooth surface and otherwise hide the components orcircuitry of circuit board 900. Protective plate 440 may likewisefunction to direct a flow of air from the vents of back plate 420 towardsmoke chamber 430 so as to facilitate air flow into and out of smokechamber 430.

Hazard detector 400 may also include a battery pack 450 that isconfigured to provide power to the various components of hazard detector400 when hazard detector 400 is not coupled with an external powersource, such as a 120 V power source of the home or structure. In someembodiments, a cover plate 470 may be coupled with the front casing 460to provide a visually pleasing appearance to hazard detector 400 and/orfor other functional purposes. In a specific embodiment, cover plate 470may include a plurality of holes or openings that allow one or moresensors coupled with circuit board 900 to view or see through a surfaceof cover plate 470 so as to sense objects external to hazard detector400. The plurality of openings of cover plate 470 may be arranged toprovide a visually pleasing appearance when viewed by occupants of thehome or structure. In one embodiment, the plurality of openings of coverplate 470 may be arranged according to a repeating pattern, such as aFibonacci or other sequence.

A lens button 1200 may be coupled with or otherwise mounted to coverplate 470. Lens button 1200 may allow one or more sensors to viewthrough the lens button 1200 for various purposes. For example, in oneembodiment a passive IR sensor (not shown) may be positioned behind thelens button 1200 and configured to view through the lens button 1200 todetect the presence of an occupant or occupants within the home orstructure. In some embodiments, lens button 1200 may also function as abutton that may be pressed by a user to input various commands to hazarddetector 400, such as to shut off an alarm that is triggered in responseto a false or otherwise harmless condition. Positioned distally behindlens button 1200 may be a light ring 1220 that is configured to receivelight, such as from an LED or another light emitting element, anddisperse the light within ring 1220 to provide a desired visualappearance, such as a halo behind lens button 1200. Positioned distallybehind light ring 1220 may be a flexible circuit board 1240 thatincludes one or more electrical components, such as a passive IR sensor(hereinafter PIR sensor), LEDs, and the like. Flexible circuit board1240 (hereinafter flex ring 1240) may be electrically coupled withcircuit board 900 to communicate and/or receive instructions from one ormore microprocessors mounted on a circuit board (not shown) duringoperation of hazard detector 400. Additional details of the componentsof hazard detector 400 are described in relation to FIGS. 5A-D and 6A-F.

FIG. 4B illustrates hazard detector 400 with the various componentsassembled. Specifically, this figure shows the mounting plate 410, frontcasing 460, back plate 420, and cover plate 470 in an assembledconfiguration with the various other components contained within aninterior space of hazard detector 400. This figure also shows theplurality of holes or openings of cover plate 470 forming a visuallypleasing design that is viewable by occupant of a room within which thehazard detector 400 is mounted. The lens button 1200 is shown attachedto the hazard detector 400 so as to be centrally positioned with respectto cover plate 470. As briefly described, light ring 1220 may be used toprovide a halo appearance of light around and behind lens button 1200.The assembled hazard detector 400 provides a compact yet multifunctionaldevice.

Referring now to FIGS. 5A and 5B, illustrated are front and rearperspective views of circuit board 900. Circuit board 900 includes amain body 902 having a front side or surface and a rear side or surface.As described herein, various electrical components are mounted oncircuit board 900. In some embodiments, these components may be mountedon the front surface of circuit board 900, on the rear surface ofcircuit board 900 opposite the front surface, or on both surfaces of thecircuit board 900. For example, in a specific embodiment one or moremicroprocessors and/or other processor related components may be mountedon the rear surface of circuit board 900 facing protective plate 440while one or more functional components (e.g. an alarm device, COdetector, speaker, motion sensors, Wi-Fi network interface components,Bluetooth components for ordinary Bluetooth or low energy, 802.15.4network interface components, such as a Zigbee device, and the like) aremounted on a front surface of circuit board 900 facing a room of thehome or structure in which the hazard detector 400 is positioned. Othercomponents may be mid-mounted relative to circuit board 900 so thatopposing surfaces are positioned on opposing sides of the circuit board900 as described herein.

As shown in FIG. 5A, in a specific embodiment the front surface ofcircuit board 900 may include a CO detector 970 that is configured todetect the presence of carbon monoxide gas and trigger an alarm device960 if the carbon monoxide gas levels are determined to be too high. Thealarm device 960 (which can be a piezoelectric buzzer having anintentionally shrill or jarring sound) may likewise be mounted on thefront surface of circuit board 900 so as to face an occupant of the roomin which the hazard detector 400 is positioned to alarm the occupant ofa potential danger. Alarm device 960 may be configured to produce one ormore sounds or signals to alert the occupant of the potential danger.The front surface may further include an area 952 in which a speaker 950is positioned. Speaker 950 may be configured to provide audible warningsor messages to the occupant of the room. For example, speaker 950 mayalert the occupant of a potential danger and instruct the occupant toexit the room. In some embodiments, speaker 950 may provide specificinstructions to the occupant, such as an exit route to use when exitingthe room and/or home or structure. Other messages may likewise becommunicated to the occupant, such as to alert the occupant that thebatteries are low, that CO levels are relatively high in the room, thathazard detector 400 needs periodic cleaning, or alert the occupant ofany other abnormalities or issues related to hazard detector 400 orcomponents thereof.

Circuit board 900 may also include one or more motion sensors mounted onthe front surface thereof. The motion sensors may be used to determinethe presence of an individual within a room or surrounding area ofhazard detector 400. This information may be used to change thefunctionality of hazard detector 400 and/or one or more other devicesconnected in a common network as described previously. For example, thisinformation may be relayed to a smart thermostat to inform thethermostat that occupants of the home or structure are present so thatthe smart thermostat may condition the home or structure according toone or more learned or programmed settings. Hazard detector 400 maylikewise use this information for one or more purposes, such as to quietthe alarm device (e.g. gesture hush) as described herein or for variousother reasons.

In one embodiment, a first ultrasonic sensor 972 and a second ultrasonicsensor 974 may be mounted on the front surface of circuit board 900. Thetwo ultrasonic sensors, 972 and 974, may be offset axially so as topoint in slightly different directions. In this orientation, eachultrasonic sensor may be used to detect the motion of an individualbased on an orientation of the hazard detector 400 relative to the roomand/or occupant. Detecting the motion of the individual may be used toquiet the alarm device as described herein (i.e., gesture hush) or forany other reason. In one embodiment, an axis of the first ultrasonicsensor 972 may be oriented substantially outward relative to hazarddetector 400 while an axis of the second ultrasonic sensor 974 isoriented at an angle relative to the axis of first ultrasonic sensor972. The first ultrasonic sensor 972 may sense motion of an individualwhen the hazard detector 400 is mounted on a ceiling of the home orstructure. Because the first ultrasonic sensor 972 is orientedsubstantially outward relative to hazard detector 400, the firstultrasonic sensor 972 essentially looks straight down on individualsbeneath hazard detector 400. The second ultrasonic sensor 974 maysimilarly sense motion of the individual when the hazard detector 400 ismounted on a wall of the home or structure. Because the secondultrasonic sensor 974 is oriented at an angle relative to the firstultrasonic sensor 972 and hazard detector 400, the second ultrasonicsensor essentially looks downward toward the floor when the hazarddetector 400 is mounted on a wall of the home or structure, rather thanlooking directly outward as first ultrasonic sensor 972. In oneembodiment, the angular offset of the two ultrasonic sensors may beapproximately 30° or any other desired value.

In another embodiment, the two ultrasonic sensors, 972 and 974, may bereplaced by a single ultrasonic sensor that is configured to rotatewithin hazard detector 400 so that the single ultrasonic sensor iscapable of looking straight outward similar to first ultrasonic sensor972 or capable of looking downward similar to second ultrasonic sensor974. The single ultrasonic sensor may be coupled to circuit board 900via a hinge that allows the ultrasonic sensor to rotate based on theorientation of hazard detector 400. For example, when hazard detector400 is mounted to a ceiling of the home or structure, gravity may orientthe ultrasonic sensor so as to look straight downward; whereas whenhazard detector 400 is coupled to a wall of the home or structure,gravity may cause the ultrasonic sensor to rotate via the hinge and lookdownward toward a floor and relative to hazard detector 400. In anotherembodiment, a motor may be coupled with the single ultrasonic sensor soas to rotate the ultrasonic sensor based on the orientation of hazarddetector 400. In this manner, the ultrasonic sensor may always point ina direction that is likely to detect motion of an individual within theroom or space surrounding the hazard detector 400. In yet anotherembodiment, the single ultrasonic sensor may have a wide field of viewthat is able to substantially accommodate both mounting positions of thetwo ultrasonic sensors 972 and 974.

As shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B, body 902 of circuit board 900 also includesa substantially centrally located aperture 904 through which smokechamber 430 is inserted so as to mid-mount the smoke chamber 430relative to circuit board 900. Aperture 904 may also include a pair ofnotches 906 through which wires are inserted to electrically couple thesmoke chamber 430 with circuit board 900. As previously described,mid-mounting of the smoke chamber 430 through an aperture 904 allowssmoke and air to enter smoke chamber 430 from both the front surface orside of circuit board 900 and the rear surface or side of circuit board900. Various aspects of the electrical components on the circuit board900 are now described, the positions thereon of many of which will beapparent to the skilled reader in view of the descriptions herein andFIGS. 5A-5B. Included on the circuit board 900 can be severalcomponents, including a system processor, relatively high-power wirelesscommunications circuitry and antenna (e.g., 802.11, ordinary Bluetooth,etc.), relatively low-power wireless communications circuitry andantenna (e.g., 802.15.4, Bluetooth low energy, etc.), non-volatilememory, audio speaker 950, one or more interface sensors, a safetyprocessor, safety sensors, alarm device 960, a power source, andpowering circuitry. The components are operative to provide failsafesafety detection features and user interface features using circuittopology and power budgeting methods that minimize power consumption.According to one preferred embodiment, a bifurcated or hybrid processorcircuit topology is used for handling the various features of the hazarddetector 400, wherein the safety processor is a relatively small,relatively lean processor that is dedicated to core safety sensorgovernance and core alarming functionality as would be provided on aconventional smoke/CO alarm, and wherein the system processor is arelatively larger, relatively higher-powered processor that is dedicatedto more advanced features such as cloud communications, user interfacefeatures, occupancy and other advanced environmental tracking features,and more generally any other task that would not be considered a “core”or “conventional” safety sensing and alarming task.

By way of example and not by way of limitation, the safety processor maybe a Freescale KL15 microcontroller, while the system processor may be aFreescale K60 microcontroller. Preferably, the safety processor isprogrammed and configured such that it is capable of operating andperforming its core safety-related duties regardless of the status orstate of the system processor. Thus, for example, even if the systemprocessor is not available or is otherwise incapable of performing anyfunctions, the safety processor will continue to perform its coresafety-related tasks such that the hazard detector 400 still meets allindustry and/or government safety standards that are required for thesmoke, CO, and/or other safety-related monitoring for which the hazarddetector 400 is offered (provided, of course, that there is sufficientelectrical power available for the safety processor to operate). Thesystem processor, on the other hand, performs what might be called“optional” or “advanced” functions that are overlaid onto thefunctionality of the safety processor, where “optional” or “advanced”refers to tasks that are not specifically required for compliance withindustry and/or governmental safety standards. Thus, although the systemprocessor is designed to interoperate with the safety processor in amanner that can improve the overall performance, feature set, and/orfunctionality of the hazard detector 400, the hazard detector 400 maymeet core safety-related industry and/or government safety standardsusing only the safety processor. Being generally a larger and morecapable processor than the safety processor, the system processor willgenerally consume more power than the safety processor when both areactive.

Similarly, when both processors are inactive, the system processor willstill consume more power than the safety processor. The system processorcan be operative to process user interface features and monitorinterface sensors (such as occupancy sensors, audio sensors, cameras,etc., which are not directly related to core safety sensing). Forexample, the system processor can direct wireless data traffic on bothhigh and low power wireless communications circuitry, accessnon-volatile memory, communicate with the safety processor, and causeaudio to be emitted from speaker 950. As another example, the systemprocessor can monitor interface sensors to determine whether any actionsneed to be taken (e.g., shut off a blaring alarm in response to a userdetected action to hush the alarm). The safety processor can beoperative to handle core safety related tasks of the hazard detector400. The safety processor can poll safety sensors (e.g., smoke, CO) andactivate alarm device 960 when one or more of safety sensors indicate ahazard event is detected. The safety processor can operate independentlyof the system processor and can activate alarm device 960 regardless ofwhat state the system processor is in. For example, if the systemprocessor is performing an active function (e.g., performing a Wi-Fiupdate) or is shut down due to power constraints, the safety processorcan still activate alarm device 960 when a hazard event is detected.

In certain embodiments, the safety processor may execute software thatis updated or changed via software and/or firmware updates. In someembodiments, the software running on the safety processor may bepermanently fixed and may never be updated via a software or firmwareupdate after the hazard detector 400 leaves the factory. Compared to thesystem processor, the safety processor is a less power consumingprocessor. Using the safety processor to monitor the safety sensors, asopposed to using the system processor to do this, can yield powersavings because safety processor may be constantly monitoring the safetysensors. If the system processor were to constantly monitor the safetysensors, power savings may not be realized. In addition to the powersavings realized by using safety processor for monitoring the safetysensors, bifurcating the processors can also ensure that the safetyfeatures of the hazard detector 400 always work, regardless of whetherthe higher level user interface works. The relatively high powerwireless communications circuitry can include, for example, a Wi-Fimodule capable of communicating according to any of the 802.11protocols.

By way of example, the relatively high power wireless communicationscircuitry may be implemented using a Broadcom BCM43362 Wi-Fi module,Bluetooth components, and/or other components. The relatively low powerwireless communications circuitry can include a low power WirelessPersonal Area Network (6LoWPAN) module or a ZigBee module capable ofcommunicating according to an 802.15.4 protocol. Additionally oralternatively, the relatively low power wireless communicationscircuitry can include Bluetooth low energy (BLE) components. Forexample, in one embodiment, the relatively low power wirelesscommunications circuitry may be implemented using an Ember EM357 6LoWPANmodule. The non-volatile memory can be any suitable permanent memorystorage such as, for example, NAND Flash, a hard disk drive, NOR, ROM,or phase change memory. In one embodiment, the non-volatile memory canstore audio clips that can be played back using the speaker 950. Theaudio clips can include installation instructions or warnings in one ormore languages. The interface sensors can includes sensors that aremonitored by the system processor, while the safety sensors can includesensors that are monitored by the safety processor. Sensors 220 and 232can be mounted to a printed circuit board (e.g., the same boardprocessor 210 and 230 are mounted to), a flexible printed circuit board,a housing of system 205, or a combination thereof.

The interface sensors can include, for example, an ambient light sensor(ALS) (such as can be implemented using a discrete photodiode), apassive infrared (PIR) motion sensor (such as can be implemented usingan Excelitas PYQ1348 module), and one or more ultrasonic sensors (suchas can be implemented using one or more Manorshi MS-P1640H12TR modules).The safety sensors can include, for example, the smoke detection chamber430 (which can employ, for example, an Excelitas IR module), the COdetection module 970 (which can employ, for example, a Figaro TGS5342sensor), and a temperature and humidity sensor (which can employ, forexample, a Sensirion SHT20 module). The power source can supply power toenable operation of the hazard detector and can include any suitablesource of energy. Embodiments discussed herein can include AC linepower, battery power, a combination of AC line power with a batterybackup, and externally supplied DC power (e.g., USB supplied power).Embodiments that use AC line power, AC line power with battery backup,or externally supplied DC power may be subject to different powerconservation constraints than battery only embodiments.

Battery-only powered embodiments are designed to manage powerconsumption of a finite energy supply such that hazard detector 400operates for a minimum period of time of at least seven (7), eight (8),nine (9), or ten (10) years. Line powered embodiments are not asconstrained. Line powered with battery backup embodiments may employpower conservation methods to prolong the life of the backup battery. Inbattery-only embodiments, the power source can include one or morebatteries, such as the battery pack 450. The batteries can beconstructed from different compositions (e.g., alkaline or lithium irondisulfide) and different end-user configurations (e.g., permanent, userreplaceable, or non-user replaceable) can be used. In one embodiment,six cells of Li-FeS₂ can be arranged in two stacks of three. Such anarrangement can yield about 27000 mWh of total available power for thehazard detector 400.

Referring now to FIGS. 5C and 5D, illustrated are front and rearperspective views of a speaker 950 that is electrically coupled withcircuit board 900 so as to receive instructions therefrom. Speaker 950includes a speaker body 952 and one or more mounting flanges 954 thatallow the speaker 950 to be coupled with or mounted on front casing 460.Speaker 950 also includes a plug 956 or other mounting component thatallows the speaker 950 to be electrically coupled with circuit board900. As previously described, speaker 950 may be used to audibly alertan occupant of a room within which hazard detector 400 is positioned, orto provide other messages to the occupant of the room. For example,speaker 950 may be used to alert a firefighter or other rescuerregarding the occupants remaining in the home or structure after a fireor other danger is detected or may be used to inform an occupant of asafest route out of the home or structure.

Referring now to FIGS. 6A and 6B, illustrated are front and rearperspective views of a lens button 1200. Lens button 1200 includes afront surface 1202 and a rear surface 1204. Lens button 1200 isconfigured to be coupled with front casing 460 by attaching lens button1200 to light ring 1220, and coupling light ring 1220 to a surfaceportion of front casing 460, as shown in FIG. 4B. Lens button 1200 isconfigured to be pressed by a user to provide input to hazard detector400 and/or for various other purposes, such as quieting an alarm device.Lens button 1200 is further configured to be transparent to one or moresensors positioned behind lens button 1200. For example, in oneembodiment, a PIR sensor is positioned behind lens button 1200. The PIRsensor is able to view external objects through lens button 1200 todetermine if an occupant is present within a room in which hazarddetector 400 is positioned.

The rear surface 1204 of lens button 1200 may have a Fresnel lenspattern 1206 that allows the PIR sensor, or another sensor, positionedbehind lens button 1200 to view far into the room in which hazarddetector 400 is positioned. In one embodiment, Fresnel lens pattern 1206may include a plurality of concentrically arranged rings that eachprovides a slightly different viewing cone. Each concentrically arrangedring may provide a progressively larger viewing area or cone than ringsconcentrically arranged and located radially closer to a central axis oflens button 1200. In one embodiment, an internal angle of the viewingcones provided by Fresnel lens pattern 1206 may vary from between about15° and about 150° so as to provide a viewing radius on a floor or wallpositioned directly in front of the hazard detector 400 at a distance ofapproximately 10 feet or between about 0.5 m and about 8.8 m. In thismanner, the PIR sensor, or other sensor, positioned behind lens button1200 may easily detect the presence of an occupant within a room inwhich hazard detector 400 is positioned.

Referring now to FIGS. 6C and 6D, illustrated are front and rearperspective views of a light ring 1220 that may be used to disperselight provided by an LED or other light source so as to provide a haloeffect behind and around lens button 1200. Light ring 1220 includes abody portion 1222 and may be coupled with lens button 1200 via adhesivebonding or any other method known in the art. In turn, light ring 1220may be coupled with front casing 460 such as by orienting light ring1220 with respect to a surface of front casing 460 and pressing lightring 1220 axially downward relative to front casing 460 so that recessedportions 1225 of light ring 1220 mate and couple with tabs (not shown)of front casing 460. These tabs may fit over the recessed portions 1225of light ring 1220 and secure light ring 1220 adjacent a surface offront casing 460. Light ring 1220 also includes a plurality of secondrecesses 1224 within which an LED (not shown) or other light source maybe positioned to illuminate light ring 1220. In operation, light ring1220 disperses light provided by the LED or other light source toprovide a halo effect behind and around lens button 1200.

Referring now to FIGS. 6E and 6F, illustrated are front and rearperspective views of a flexible circuit board or flex ring 1240 that mayelectrically couple components positioned in front of circuit board 900,such as lens button 1200, with circuit board 900. Flex ring 1240includes a tail end or ribbon 1244 that may be insertable into acomponent of circuit board 900 to electrically couple lens button 1200,light ring 1220, and/or one or more components with circuit board 900.Flex ring 1240 also includes a central portion that may include a PIRsensor 1250 that is positioned so as to be behind lens button 1200. Thecentral portion of flex ring 1240 further includes a plurality offlanges 1246 that mate with flanges (not shown) of front casing 460 soas to orient flex ring 1240 relative to front casing 460 and/or coupleflex ring 1240 therewith. Specifically, a channel 1248 between flanges1246 may fit around flanges (not shown) of front casing 460 to orientand couple flex ring 1240 with front casing 460. Flex ring 1240 furtherincludes a circumferentially arranged ring portion 1242 having aplurality of LED lights 1252, or other source of light, coupledtherewith. The plurality of LED lights 1252 are arranged so as to beinsertable within recessed portions 1224 of light ring 1220. LED lights1252 illuminate light ring 1220 as previously described. A bottomsurface of the central portion of flex ring 1240 includes a button 1251that is actuated as lens button 1200 is pressed by a user. In thismanner, input is provided to the hazard detector 400 by the user aspreviously described.

II. Smart Hazard Drills

Electronic devices such as the hazard detectors 104 and 400 may identifyand warn of a hazard in an actual emergency. Actual emergencies,however, are rare. When people confront unusual and unexpected hazardevents, it may be extremely helpful to have practiced or prepared forthem in advance. The smart home devices mentioned above, including thehazard detectors 104 and/or 400, may provide a framework to allowfamilies and/or individuals to practice hazard drills (e.g., firedrills, smoke detection drills, carbon monoxide detection drills,earthquake drills, tornado drills, and so forth), to become betterprepared in the unlikely event of an actual emergency.

FIG. 7 illustrates a process 1300 that may be employed for startingdrills using the smart hazard detectors 104 and 400 and/or other smartdevices. The process 1300 begins by verifying proximity of an initiatorof the drill (block 1302). For example, such determinations may be madethrough wireless communications (e.g., Bluetooth, near fieldcommunications, and/or other short range wireless communications) ormanual inputs (e.g., pressing manual button on a device in the smartnetwork). Once the proximity of the initiator has been verified, devicesin the smart network begin the drill (block 1304). In some embodiments,the drill may begin immediately, may be delayed a specific amount oftime (e.g., 10 seconds), or may be scheduled for some time in thefuture.

Although the process 1300 includes proximity detection, otherembodiments may include starting a drill remotely using otherverification such, as passwords and/or certificates to verify that thedrilling initiator has authority to do so. Moreover, in someembodiments, the drill may be initiated by a remote, paused, andcontinued by a device that is in proximity to one or more devices in thesmart network.

a. Manual Proximity Detection

FIG. 8 illustrates a flowchart illustrating an embodiment of a drillingprocess 1306 that may be implemented by one of the smart devices oranother electronic device (e.g., a personal handheld device such asdevice 166) (referred to in this section as the initiating device). Thedrilling process 1306 begins when an initiating device receives anindication from a user, such as a head of household, that a drill modeis to be initiated (block 1308). For example, in some embodiments, theinitiating device may receive a selection within a user interface 1400of a fire drill option 1402 as illustrated in FIG. 9.

As illustrated in FIG. 9, the user interface 1400 may include a statuspage for a specific hazard detector device through which the drill is tobe initiated. As illustrated, the user interface 1400 may be presentedvia a smart phone, personal digital assistant, tablet computer, and/orother computing device. In some embodiments, a user interface may bepresented using one or more smart devices (e.g., thermometer) coupled tothe smart network. In the illustrated embodiment, the user interface1400 includes a device identifier 1402 that identifies the device towhich the device presenting the user interface 1400 is connected. Theuser interface 1400 also includes a status identifier 1404 thatindicates a status of the device indicated by the device identifier1402. The status identifier 1404 may include a ring that changes bystatus. For example, the ring may be green when everything is ok, may beyellow during an alert, red during an emergency, and/or orange during adrill. In certain embodiments, the status identifier 1404 may includeother visual indicators that identify a status of the device. The userinterface 1400 may also include auxiliary information 1406, such as alocation for the device and textual information regarding a status ofthe device.

The user interface 1400 may also include settings 1408 that enablesentry of one or more settings preferences for the drill, device, smartnetwork, and/or other behaviors. Furthermore, the user interface 1400may also include navigation controls 1410, such as a back button toreturn to a main menu that lists available devices to which thecomputing device causing the display of the user interface 1400.

The user interface 1400 may also include a drill item 1412 that may beused to begin the drill by sending the indication to the smart device asdiscussed in relation to block 1308 in FIG. 8. In some embodiments,multiple drill items may be presented using the user interface. Forexample, the user interface 400 may include a fire drill item, a COdrill item, and/or other drill types. The user interface 1400 may alsoinclude a checkup item 1414 that when selected verifies connectionand/or functionality of the device. For example, the checkup item 1414may be selected to cause the device to alarm without starting a drill onall devices in the smart network. The user interface 1400 may alsoinclude a history item 1416 that enables viewing of history of drilling,as discussed later.

In some embodiments, upon selection of the drill item 1412, theinitiating device may advance the initiating device to an instructionpage 1420 illustrated in FIGS. 10A-10C that explains the drill processto the user. In some embodiments, the instruction page 1420 may includea scrollable section 1422 that allows scrolling within the page to showdifferent instructions based user swipes or other interactions. Theinstruction page 1420 may include an indication 1424 that displayswhether additional information may be displayed and/or a sequence forwhich the information currently being displayed resides. In otherembodiments, all information may be shown on a single page concurrently.The instruction page 1420 may also include status information 1426 thatdisplays information indicating that the menu being navigated is for aspecific drill type (e.g., fire drill). The status information 1426 canalso include information about the most recently performed drill of thedrill type. The instruction page 1420 may also include a cancel item1428 that cancels the drill process and a start item 1430 that causesthe drill process to proceed. As previously discussed, the instructionpage 1420 may include different information for different portions ofthe drill process. For example, the instruction page 1420 may includebeginning instructions 1432, mid-process instructions 1434, and/orprocess ending instructions 1436.

Returning to FIG. 8, the initiating device receiving the indication mayalso display instructions to the user to wake the hazard detector 400 tocommunicate with the device (block 1310). Specifically, the hazarddetectors 400 in the home may be communicating with one another usingrelatively low-power wireless communication to conserve power. To beable to communicate outside of the low-power network with other devices,such as the initiating device or a service over the Internet, the hazarddetectors 400 first may be awoken. Thus, in some embodiments, theinstructions on the initiating device may direct the user to touch thelens button 1200 to cause the hazard detector 400 to awake as shown inthe instructions 1438 of FIG. 11. In some embodiments, the instructions1438 may include a continue item 1440 that may be selected to indicatethat the device has been awakened. In certain embodiments, the devicemay send an indication to the initiating device to indicate that it hasawoken.

In certain embodiments, when the hazard detector 400 awakens, itactivates the higher power network radio (e.g., WiFi) to enablecommunication with the initiating device or a network service (e.g., alocal or Internet service via an Internet gateway) that the initiatingdevice has been communicating with. The hazard detector 400 that wasawoken by the user may also send instructions to other devices by therelatively low-power wireless communication to wake up. After displayingthe instructions, the initiating device may determine whether the hazarddetector 400 has awoken or the network service may begin communicatingwith the hazard detector 400 (block 1312). In some embodiments, theinitiating device may determine that the hazard detector 400 hasawakened by completing a pairing communication with hazard detector 400.If the initiating device has not received an indication of waking fromthe hazard detector 400 or the network service, the initiating devicemay determine if a response period having a predetermined length haselapsed (block 1316). Once the period has elapsed, the initiating devicemay indicate that the connection has failed, such as the connectionerror screen 1800 illustrated in FIG. 12.

Returning to FIG. 8, in some embodiments, once the initiating device hasreceived notification of wakefulness from the hazard detector 400, theinitiating device may present instructions to the user to continue theprocess 1300 (block 1318). In some embodiments, the initiating devicemay instead proceed with the drill by receiving an indication to proceed(e.g., continue item 1440) prior to receiving notification ofwakefulness. In certain embodiments, the continue item 1440 may belocked until the notification of wakefulness has been received. Uponselection of the continue button 1440, the initiating device may receivean indication to proceed (block 1320). In some embodiments, the drillbeginning may be delayed for some period of time. For example, bydelaying the drill beginning, a user pressing the button on the devicemay move away from the device after pressing the button before thedevice starts drilling. During this delay, the initiating device maydisplay a delay screen 1442 as illustrated in FIG. 14. The delay screen1442 may include a countdown 1444 that indicates how long until thealarm begins. The delay screen 1442 may also include a drill cancel item1446 that, upon selection, cancels the drill.

Upon receipt of this indication, the initiating device may cause thedrill to begin by sending an indication of initiation of the drill(block 1322). In some embodiments, this indication may be performed viathe pairing communication initiated during the wakening process. Asdiscussed below, in some embodiments, the drill may be performed at atime subsequent to the indication of desire to initiate a drill byscheduling the drill.

A family may initiate a practice hazard drill as discussed above. Theinstructions to the user displayed on the initiating device may explainhow to conduct the drill with the various members of the household. Theinitiating device may also provide other information to the user toassist in the drill, such as a timer indicating elapsed time since thestart of the drill. The initiating device may also instruct the user tomake the drill as realistic as possible by placing the household membersin the locations where they might be in an actual emergency (e.g.,children in their respective rooms, etc.).

When the drill begins, the hazard detectors 400 may begin to sound analarm. The alarm provided by the hazard detectors 400 may besubstantially similar to the alarm that would be emitted in an actualemergency, but with certain specific changes. For example, between alarmsoundings, the hazard detectors 400 may also state “THIS IS ONLY ADRILL” or provide a different indication that an actual emergency is notunderway (e.g., showing a different color on the interface of the hazarddetectors 400). In other embodiments, the hazard detectors 400 may soundan alarm that is exactly the same as would be emitted in an actualemergency and may not provide any other overt indication that a drill isoccurring, other than starting based on the request of the user. In somecases, the hazard detectors 400 may initially announce that a hazarddrill is about to occur, and thereafter emit an alarm exactly like thatwhich would occur in an actual emergency.

As the hazard drill is performed, the initiating device may displayinstructions for the operator during the drill as well as a timer. Forexample, when the initiating device is a mobile phone, the device mayshow the drill screen 1450 illustrated in FIG. 13. The drill screen 1450may also include a drill stop button 1452 that enables the user to stopthe drill. In some embodiments, the drill screen 1450 may include atimer 1454 that indicates a duration of the alarm. The drill screen 1450may also include a location indicator 1456. In some embodiments, thelocation indicator indicates a location that is selected by the user(before or during drill process), randomly selected, programmed, and/orotherwise selected. When the device is a thermostat, the device may showa drill screen 1454 illustrated in FIG. 15. As illustrated, the drillscreen 1460 may indicate that a drill is underway and may include adrill stop interface button 1462 that enables the user to stop the drillby pressing on the initiating device.

During the hazard drill, the initiating device may be used to determinewhether the drill is complete (block 1324). In some embodiments, theinitiating device may determine that the drill is complete when thedrill stop button 1452 or 1462 are pressed, a number of individuals haveexcited the building, a predetermined period of time has elapsed, orother indications of drill completion are received.

In some embodiments, drilling may be made into a game for the family toparticipate by setting goals based on house size, average times in asimilar area, and/or previous drills. Before the drill is completed, theinitiating device may determine whether a time limit for the alarm isspecified and has been exceeded (block 1326). If a time limit exists andthe time has been exceeded, the initiating device may display a timeoutscreen that informs the user that the drill took too long (block 1328).For example, as illustrated in FIG. 16, the device may display a timeoutscreen 1464 that enables the user to reattempt the drill via a retrybutton 1466 or remind the user to perform another drill in six monthsvia a remind button 1468.

For example, one of the adults in a family of two adults and twochildren may initiate the hazard drill. The initiating adult may reviewthe instructions on the initiating device and pass the instructions onto the rest of the family. As the hazard drill takes place, the adultsmay monitor the children and provide additional guidance to practice thesafe completion of the drill.

If the drill is completed within the target goal time or no target goalis present, the initiating device may present a checklist of variousactions to be performed during the drill (block 1330). For example, theinitiating device may present a checklist page 1470 as illustrated inFIGS. 16A and 16B. The checklist page 1470 includes a timer 1472displaying how long the drill was active. The checklist page 1470 alsoincludes a checklist 1474 that includes a number of actions to beperformed during the drill.

The checklist 1476 includes an entry portion 1478 that allows entry ofindications of whether the indicated action was performed during thedrill. For example, using the entry portion 1478, a user may indicatewhether doors were checked for heat before being opened, participantsstayed at appropriate heights (e.g., bent low for fire/smoke and uprightfor CO), found a phone to call the fire department, met at apredetermined escape location, closed doors for fire drills, left doorsopen for CO, and/or other actions appropriate to a an event that isbeing emulated in the drill. As illustrated in FIG. 17A, the entryportion 1476 may include unchecked options that may be checked asillustrated in FIG. 17B. The checklist page 1470 also includes anacceptance item 1478 that may be selected when the entry portion 1476 iscompleted. Upon acceptance of the checklist, the initiating devicedetermines whether all items in the checklist were marked as completed(block 1332).

If all items in the checklist were not completed, the initiating devicepresents information based on the checklist (block 1334). For example,an information page 1480, as illustrated in FIG. 18, may be presented bythe initiating device. The information page 1480 may include a timeindication 1482 that indicates how long the drill lasted. Theinformation page 1480 also includes instructions 1484 that reflectactions that should have been taken during the drill. As illustrated, ifa user did not indicate that doors were closed behind participants inthe drill, the instructions 1484 inform the user that the doors shouldhave been closed and inform the user that closing the doors slows thespread of fire during an actual fire. Similarly, the instructions 1484may inform the user to call the fire department after completing thedrill/fire exit, to plan an escape route that includes at least tworoutes for each person/location in the house, to stay low during fires,to stay upright during CO events, check doors for heat using the backsof hands before opening a door during a fire, and/or other similarsafety tips.

As illustrated, the instructions 1484 may include a short descriptionexplaining why the actions are recommended. Furthermore, theinstructions 1484 may include a link 1486 to additional information. Thelink 1486 may include hyperlinks to safety organization web pages and/orother locations explaining the importance of and the rationale behindthe safety tips. The information page 1480 also includes an acceptancebutton 1488 that may be selected after the user has viewed theinstructions 1484. In some embodiments, the instructions 1484 may spanseveral pages and may be navigated using swipes or presses of theacceptance button 1448 to proceed to the next safety tip.

After the drill has been completed, the initiating device may display asuccess screen that indicates information about the drill (block 1336).This information may be used to verify the proper completion of thehazard drill (e.g., to award insurance discounts or other preparednessincentives) and convey additional information to the user. In someembodiments, the device may display success screen 1500 of FIG. 19 whenthe drill is completed within a recommended amount of time regardless ofwhether the drill has a time limit. The display screen 1500 indicates atime 1502 for a duration of the drill and a commendation 1504 for timelycompletion. In embodiments with or without a time limit, a recommendedcompletion time may exist (e.g., 2-4 minutes). If the drill is notcompleted within the recommended completion time (regardless of whetherthe drill timed out), an improvement page 1510 may be presented, asillustrated in FIG. 20. The improvement page 1510 includes a timer 1512indicating the completion time for the drill and an encouragementportion 1514 encouraging the drill time to be improved and relativecomparison of completion time to a recommended time based onsimilar-sized buildings, recorded times in similar areas,previously-conducted drills, and/or other factors relevant to drilltimes. In some embodiments, a completion screen 1520 may be presented toindicate completion time relative to other previously-completed drills,as illustrated in FIG. 21.

The completion screens 1500 and 1510 may include additional controlssuch as a retry button or a remind button. In some embodiments, thecompletion screen may include an option to initiate a social report(block 1338). For example, upon selection of a social report, the devicemay automatically send a report to a social network site or allow theuser to send a report. In some embodiments, the report may be a post ona social media site. For example, a post might state, “We had a familyfire drill. We all got out in 30 seconds.”

In some embodiments, the hazard drill may be initiated using only thehazard detector 400. For example, buttons or combination of buttonpresses or patterns of button presses may be used to activate a drillmode within the hazard detector. For example, a button 1600 of a smarthazard detector 1602 of FIG. 22 may be pressed for ten or more secondsfollowed by a quick double press to initiate a drill mode for the hazarddetector 400.

As illustrated in FIG. 23, when the hazard detector 400 receives a drillmode activation via direct communication, another smart device, or fromthe network service that the initiating device is communicating with,the hazard detector 400 may wake up and then may wake and/or sound analarm for other hazard detectors 400 as well as send drill informationto other smart devices. FIG. 24 illustrates a process 1620 for awakeningand notifying other hazard detectors 400. Upon receiving an indicationto enter a drill mode (block 1622), the hazard detector 400 may awaken(block 1624) if in a sleep mode. In some embodiments, the awakening mayoccur during a next scheduled awaken period for the hazard detector 400.While the hazard detector 400 is awake and in a drill mode, the hazarddetector may waken neighboring hazard detectors by sending an indicationvia a hazard communication path (block 1626). For example, the hazarddetectors may communicate via an interconnection hardwire or a low powernetwork connection (e.g., 802.15.4) that instructs the other hazarddetectors to awaken an enter drill mode according to a pre-negotiatedalarm profile, as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/588,104, entitled “Alarm Profile for a Fabric Network” filed on Dec.31, 2014, which is incorporated by reference in its entirety. In someembodiments, the hazard detector 400 may merely instruct other hazarddetectors to awaken and communicate via the higher power network (e.g.,WiFi) to enable the device or the hazard detector 400 to communicate viathe higher power network. Furthermore, in some embodiments, the hazarddetector 400 (or the initiating device initiating the drill) may alertother smart devices of the activation of a hazard drill mode. As will bediscussed below, these alerted smart devices may be used in the drill toemulate behaviors in an actual emergency.

b. Wireless Proximity Detection

In both of the manual initiation scenarios discussed above, proximitydetection is conducted by including physical interaction with one ormore smart devices in the smart network at the location where the drillis to occur. However, in some embodiments, proximity detection may becompleted without physical interaction with any devices in the network.For example, FIG. 25 illustrates a process 1650 that may be performedusing a wireless network connection. The process 1652 begins when ahazard detector (or other smart device in the smart network) connects toan initiator device via a first network (block 1652). For example, asmart phone may connect to a hazard detector using a Bluetooth lowenergy (BLE) wireless connection and/or any other suitable wirelessconnection (e.g., 802.15.4, WiFi). The hazard detector then determineswhether the initiating device is within a predetermined proximity of thehazard detector. For example, if the hazard detector connects to theinitiating device using BLE, the hazard detector determines that theinitiating device is within range. However, if the hazard detectorconnects to the initiating device using WiFi, the hazard detector mayinspect a signal strength of the connection between the initiatingdevice and a wireless router and/or geotagging information in acommunication sent between the devices. Additionally or alternatively,the hazard detector may request the initiating device to verifyproximity by connecting to one or more other smart devices in the smartnetwork using a near field communication (NFC).

Until the initiating device can verify that it is within range of thehazard detector, the hazard detector may instruct the initiating deviceto move within range of the hazard detector by moving closer to thehazard detector (block 1656). Once the initiating device is within rangeof the hazard detector, the initiating device presents instructions tocontinue (block 1658). The initiating device receives an indication toproceed, e.g., via the user interface 1400 (block 1660). The hazarddetector then propagates the drill to other hazard detectors and/orother smart devices over a second network (block 1662). For example, inat least one embodiment, the hazard detector connects to the initiatingdevice using a BLE connection, but the hazard detector propagates thedrill using an 802.15.4 network. The hazard detectors and smart devicesin the smart network drill until the drill is complete (block 1664).After the drill has been completed, the initiating device presents achecklist (block 1666), as previously discussed. If the checklist hasnot been completed (block 1668), the initiating device presentsinformation based on the checklist (block 1670). The informationpresentation scene may include all summary information for the drill. Ifthe checklist has been completed, the initiating device may displaydrill result information (block 1672), as previously discussed. In someembodiments, the initiating device may be used to present a report toinsurance organizations, social media, safety organizations, and/orsocial media. For example, the initiating device may request whetheranonymized data may be shared with safety organizations to bettercompile safety information in homes.

c. Drill Scheduling

FIG. 26 illustrates a block diagram of a scheduling system 2600 that maybe used to schedule a drill in the future. In the illustratedembodiment, a scheduling device 2602 may be used to schedule a drill.The scheduling device 2602 may include any electronic device that iscapable of sending scheduling data 2604 via the Internet or router 2606to one or more smart devices (e.g., hazard detector 2608), the service2610, or other Internet services suitable for storing and schedulingdrills. For example, the scheduling device 2600 may be used to performthe process 2700 of FIG. 27 to schedule the drill. The scheduling device2600 may receive scheduling information for a drill (block 2702) via arespective interface (e.g., keyboard, touch screen, mouse, etc.). Thescheduling device 2600 then may send the scheduling information to theservice 2602 or a smart device for storage (block 2704). In someembodiments, the service 2610 may store information or schedulinginformation related to a drill until a predetermined period before thedrill (e.g., a week). At this point, the service may send the scheduleddrill information to a smart device for storage on the network. Thescheduled drill information may be stored in a memory 2612 of the hazarddetector 2608 or some other suitable device (e.g., thermostat) to beconveyed to the hazard detector 2608 at a later time. By storing theinformation locally, a scheduled drill may be conducted regardless ofthe availability of an Internet connection from the local smart networkthat has the smart devices.

FIG. 28 illustrates a process 2800 for conducting a scheduled drill. Thehazard detector 2608 may receive drill schedule data from the schedulingdevice 2602, the Nest service 2610 or another smart device (block 2802).The hazard detector 2608 then may store the schedule data informationlocally (block 2804). As discussed below, the schedule may be variedbased on occupancy or other settings (block 2806). For example, thehazard detector 2608 may choose to delay a drill if the smart networkhas determined that less than a minimum number of users are in thebuilding or proximity detection by an authorized person cannot beperformed. In some embodiments, the hazard detector 2608 may also delaydrills until users have been in the building for a predetermined periodof time (e.g., more than 10 minutes). By delaying until after entry forsome period, the hazard drill may more accurately reflect an emergencysituation or allow the users to become settled before conducting thedrill. At the originally scheduled time, or at a varied time, the hazarddetector 2608 conducts the drill (block 2808). In some embodiments, thehazard drill may vary based on pre-entered or default settings.

FIG. 29 illustrates a configuration screen that may be used to configuredrills via an electronic device 2902. The electronic device 2902 may bea scheduling device or any smart device that may be used to initiate adrill. FIG. 29 further illustrates that at least two networks 2904 and2906 may be present in a single structure. In the illustratedembodiment, the electronic device 2900 and the hazard detectors 2608connect to a WiFi network 2904, and the hazard detectors 2608 alsointerconnect using an 802.15.4 network 2906. Since, in some embodiments,the WiFi signal is not suitable for proximity detection due torelatively long connection distances, the electronic device 2900 mayverify proximity to the hazard detector using auditory or opticalmethods. For example, the electronic device 2900 may produce an auditorytone or signal (e.g., ultrasonic signal) that may be detected by thehazard detector 2608 to verify that the electronic device 2900 is withina predetermined distance. Additionally or alternatively, the electronicdevice may produce light (e.g., infrared light). Moreover, in someembodiments, such signals may be broadcast by the hazard detector 2608at a frequency that may be confirmed by the electronic device 2900 toverify proximity.

FIG. 30 illustrates a screen that may be used to enter or changesettings used to perform a drill. In the illustrated embodiment, fiveoptions are presented for the user in a configuration screen 3000. Theoptions may include various available options that the user may selector allow.

For example, the configuration screen 3000 may enable a user to select afuture date for a scheduled drill via a time scheduling option 3002. Insome embodiments, the time that may be selected may pertain to aspecific month, week, range of days, a specific day or even a specifictime within a day. In certain embodiments, the scheduled time of thedrill may be randomized to some degree. For example, the hazard detector400 may alternate between different locations in a home as the locationof the hypothetical emergency for the drill. For example, in a firstdrill, the hazard detector 400 may announce that smoke has been detectedin a first room, but during a second drill the hazard detector 400 mayannounce that smoke has been detected in a different room. During thehazard drill, then, the household members may practice the drill basedon these different conditions. For example, when the hazard drillsimulates that smoke has been detected in the first room, the householdmembers may keep away from the first room on their way out of thebuilding. When the hazard drill simulates that smoke has been detectedin the second room, the household members may keep away from the secondroom on their way out of the building. Because the hazard detectors 400may have occupancy sensors (which, although these may not be in useduring an actual emergency, may be used during a drill), the occupancysensors may be used to determine the location and manner of exit by thehousehold members. The hazard detectors 400 thus may, in certain cases,use occupancy detection as a gauge for how well the hazard drill wasperformed by the household members. In the example, simulating smokebeing detected in various rooms, the hazard detectors 400 may useoccupancy detection to verify that the household members avoided thoserooms.

The hazard detector 400 may also randomize a time of a drill to somedegree. For example, in the randomize option 3004, a user might bepresented with options to vary a drill start time by some amount (e.g.,plus or minus 90 minutes). By increasing the level of randomness, a usermight be more aware of what a reaction to an actual emergency ratherthan a response to a drill that the user knew the exact drill starttime. The randomize option 3004 may enable a user to adjust thevariation window in which the drill may be started by inputting a timevia any suitable input mechanism such as a slider bar or text entry box.

The configuration screen 3000 may also present a type of drill option3006 that enables a user to select which type of emergency to preparefor. For example, the type of drill may include a fire drill (e.g.,smoke based alarm), CO drill, shelter-in-place drill, earthquake drill,flood drill, tornado drill, radon drill, or other suitable drill types.In real emergency situations, each of these emergencies may have aspecific set of rules that may be emulated within a corresponding drill.These sets of rules may include instructions that are presented tobuilding occupants visually or audibly. As will be discussed below, insome embodiments, additional devices may be controlled during the drillsimilarly to how they would be controlled during an actual emergency.For example, when a fire drill is performed, devices may be switched offdirectly or using the smart outlets 110. Furthermore, in someembodiments, the configuration screen 3000 may present options for ruleswithin each of the types of drills.

The configuration screen 3000 may further present an instructions option3008 that controls which instructions are to be presented during thedrill (and/or related emergencies). For example, the selectedinstructions may be audibly presented during a drill or an emergency bythe hazard detector 400 or presented on one or more smart devicesvisually.

The configuration screen 3000 may also include a pathlight option 3010that controls use of LEDs or other controlled devices that may involveillumination during the drill or actual emergency. For example, a personmay select a solid option for pathlight that causes hazard detectors 400to brightly illuminate routes to increase visibility during a drill. Forexample, each hazard detector 400 may flash red as part of the alarm,but between flashes, the hazard detector 400 may flash white rather thanflash off to increase visibility for the user. The pathlight option 3010may also include a moving strobe that flashes in a linear pattern thatwill lead building occupants to an exit during a drill or an emergency,similar to exit lighting in an airplane. For example, FIG. 31illustrates a portion of a building 3100 that includes two hallways 3102and 3104. In each hallway, smart devices 3106, 3108, 3110, 3112, 3114,3116, and 3118 (e.g., hazard detector 400) may be interconnected. In thehallway 3102, smart devices 3106-3112 may flash linearly to directbuilding occupants toward a fire exit 3120. Specifically, smart device3106 may flash then smart devices 3108, 3110, and 3112 sequentially.Similarly, in the hallway 3102, the smart devices 3114, 3116, 3118, and3112 may flash sequentially. By flashing the smart devices in such amanner even a building occupant unfamiliar with the building 3100 may beable to find the closest fire exit even when the building 3100 isrelatively high.

Returning to FIG. 29, the configuration screen 3000 may includeadditional options, such as controls various rules for devices duringdrills. For example, the configuration screen 3000 may allow a user toindicate that the user does not desire for any smart devices to bedisabled during the drill.

FIG. 32 illustrates an option selection interface 3200 that enables auser to choose one or more selections in the configuration screen 3000.For example, the illustrated option selection interface 3200 includesoptions for presenting no instructions 3202 or presenting instructionsstating the meeting location for the occupants 3204, instructionsstating to leave doors open when exiting 3206, instructions informingoccupants that the current alert pertains to drill 3208, or instructionsstating that occupants should remain upright when exiting the building3210. In some embodiments, only one option may be selected while otherembodiments allow multiple selections.

d. Incentives for Hazard Drills

Using these options, a drill may be performed. However, in somesituations, a user may forget to perform drills regularly. Accordingly,one or more smart devices in the smart network may track when and/or howdrills are performed. Moreover, incentives such as monetary incentives(e.g., an insurance rebate) and/or social or intrinsic incentives (e.g.,social reports to social media and/or badges or achievements) may beoffered to encourage hazard preparedness by scheduling and conductinghazard drills. In some embodiments, the smart devices and/or a networkservice (e.g., the Nest service) may track each drill type to ensurethat each drill type has occurred frequently and/or correctly. Asillustrated in the process 3300 of FIG. 33, the smart device and/or anetwork service may determine when the last drill occurred using thetracked drill information (block 3302). The smart device determineswhether the period since the last drill is greater than a threshold(block 3304). If the smart device determines that the last drill wasperformed more than a threshold in the past, the smart device may remindthe occupant (block 3306). In some embodiments, the occupant may bereminded via audio message, a color change of an LED, an electronicmessage via email or text message using a remote service (e.g., Nestservice), notification via a display of the smart device or anothersmart device in the smart network, another suitable method for remindingan occupant, or some combination thereof. In some embodiments, thereminder to the occupant may include incentives for conducting thedrill, as will be discussed below.

As discussed in reference to FIGS. 8 and 25, a drill may be followed bya social report. FIG. 34 illustrates a process 3400 that may be used toshare drill information. An electronic device, such as a mobile phoneused to initiate the drill, may present instructions to a user fortaking a photograph after the drill (block 3402). The electronic deviceor another device may determine a location for the photograph (e.g.,from geotagging information associated with the photograph and/or from aGPS measurement at the time of the photograph) (block 3404). Using thislocation information, the electronic device may associate the photolocation as the meeting location after an emergency or drill (block3406). Additionally or alternatively, this location information may beprovided manually by the user who initiated the hazard drill or may beprovided by indicating on the electronic device that the user hasarrived at the meeting location (and a GPS measurement or other locationinformation may be gathered by the electronic device at that point). Inone embodiment, the electronic device or a network service (e.g., theservice) may compare the location of the meeting point with the locationof the building. If the location appears to be too remote or too closeto the building, the electronic device or the network service (e.g., theservice) may identify the meeting location as such. The electronicdevice and/or the network service (e.g., the service) may indicate tothe user that the meeting point should be moved accordingly in futuredrills or in an actual emergency (e.g., to a location farther from thebuilding). In some embodiments, the electronic device and/or the networkservice (e.g., the service) may correspondingly propose retrying thehazard drill with the new meeting point.

In some embodiments, this meeting location information may be sharedwith first-responder personnel to assist in responding to an actualemergency (e.g., fire or police). The location information associated asthe emergency meeting location and/or the photograph may also be used infuture hazard drills and/or in an actual emergency by the hazarddetectors 400. For example, in a future drill or in an actual emergency,the hazard detectors 400 may announce “GET TO THE MEETING PLACE: ACROSSTHE STREET AT 12420 SWEETWATER LANE” or “GET TO THE MEETING PLACE:BASEMENT TORNADO SHELTER” as appropriate. In addition, the photographmay also be used to identify the number of people who participated inthe drill (e.g., by counting faces the number of faces in the drillcompletion photograph plus accounting for the person taking thephotograph).

Continuing with the flowchart of FIG. 34, one or more smart devices maydetermine various information related to the drill, such as time ofcompletion, whether everyone avoided the identified location of hazard(e.g., by noting occupancy or the lack of occupancy in places simulatedas having smoke or fire), the number of people leaving the building(e.g., as detectable through the number of faces counted in the drillcompletion photograph, manual entry by the user of the initiatingdevice, and/or by occupancy monitoring), noise level of occupants whenleaving, and/or any other suitable factors that relate to proper hazarddrill behavior. Using this information, the smart devices may calculateachievements related to proper execution of the drill (block 3408). Inother words, the drill may be incorporated as part of a pseudo-game toincentivize preparedness through practicing hazard drills. In someembodiments, drill results may be integrated with a mobile deviceapplication that trains the family. In some embodiments, the electronicapplication may award achievements, post achievements to social sites,unlock portions of a game in or related to the electronic applicationbased on achievements, award items in the game based on achievements, orother actions that may incentivize participation in a drill or training.Moreover, the achievements may be determined in any suitable way. Forexample, achievements may be given when a monthly frequency of drillpractice exceeds a threshold (e.g., more than once every 6 months), whena threshold total number of drills has been completed (e.g., 2, 3, 4, 5,6, or more drills), when certain types of drills have been completed(e.g., when smoke, CO, fire, and/or earthquake drills have beencompleted), when certain types of drills have been completed for certaingeographic areas (e.g., an earthquake drill in California or a tornadodrill in Oklahoma), when an absolute or average time of completion ofthe hazard drills falls beneath a threshold, when a hazard scenario isdealt with appropriately (e.g., a room simulated to have had smokedetected in it for the purposes of the hazard drill is avoided), and soforth. The electronic device may also present an interface for postingthe received achievements, drill completion photograph, and/or otherdrill information to one or more social media sites (block 3410). Insome embodiments, by posting the achievements to a social media site,various incentives may be provided to the user, such as financialincentives (e.g., discounts or rebates for hazard insurance), unlockinggame portions of certain video games that may be locked until respectiveachievements have been attained, or certain media downloads (e.g., afree or discounted download from the Google Play store). After receivingan indication of a desire to post the information, the electronic devicemay send the drill information or achievement to the social media site(block 3412).

As part of the game scheme for the drills, additional goals for futureachievements or incentives may be based on previous achievements. FIG.35 illustrates a process 3500 for determining incentives. The process3500 begins by determining previous achievements awarded for past drills(block 3502). For example, a previous achievement may have been awardeddue to completion of a previous drill or a completion time of the drill.Based on the previous achievements, goals are created and may bepresented to the user (block 3504). For example, if a previous drill wascompleted in nine minutes, a new goal for the same drill type may bepresented as an eight minute and thirty second target. In addition tothe goal, the electronic device may present incentives for completingthe next goal, such as financial discounts on insurance or level unlocksin a game related to drills or emergency situations. Upon achieving thegoals, the incentives may be awarded (block 3506). In some embodiments,the electronic device may provide the user an option to select which ofthe incentives the user desires. For example, the electronic device maypresent a user an option to unlock a game level or receive a credit oninsurance payments from the building owner's cooperating insurancecompany.

FIG. 36 presents a process 3600 for sending a notification to receive aninsurance discount. Anytime that an electronic device determines that adrill has been successfully completed (block 3602), the electronicdevice may send an indication to the insurance company instructing theinsurance company to reduce insurance costs to the building owner (block3604). In some embodiments, the type of drill and various achievementsmay determine the amount of cost reduction. For example, a drillcomplete once a year may reduce insurance premiums by $1 monthly, but ifa drill is complete once every six months may reduce insurance premiumsby $2 monthly.

FIG. 37 illustrates a system 3700 that may be used to inform communicategoals and achievements to occupants and share achievements withinsurance companies. The system 3700 includes buildings 3702 that eachinclude one or more smart devices 3704 (e.g., hazard detector 400) thatconnect through a network 3706 to a coordinating service 3708, such asthe Nest service. When the coordinating service 3708 receives indicationof a completed drill, the information may be sent to a fire department3710 or an insurance company 3712.

e. Verifying Completion and Learning for Actual Emergency

Because an insurance company may want to ensure that drills aresuccessfully completed, additional verification measures may beprovided. FIG. 38 illustrates a block diagram of a verification scheme3800 that may be used to verify that the drill has been completed.Within the scheme 3800, a processor 3802 accesses a profile 3804,occupancy data reflecting a period before the drill 3806, and occupancydata reflecting a period after the drill 3808. The profile 3804 includesinformation related to occupants of the home. FIG. 39 illustrates aprofile 3900 that may be used to verify completeness of drills as wellas share important information with responders (e.g., fire department)when an emergency message is sent. As illustrated, the profile 3900 mayinclude a number of adults 3902, information about the adults 3904,number of children 3906, information about the children 3908, number ofpets 3910, and emergency contact information. The profile 3900 may alsoinclude other information that may be important in rescuing occupantsduring an emergency, such as locations of children within the home.

Returning to the example of FIG. 38, the processor 3802 may determinewhether a drill is complete or incomplete. In some embodiments, theprocessor 3802 may determine that the drill is complete when the numberof people leaving the building is equal to a percentage (e.g., 80%) ofpeople on the profile or equal to the number of people detected in thehouse. In some embodiments, no drill may be verified if less than anumber (e.g., 2) of people have left the building during the drill. Ifthe processor 3802 determines that the drill is complete, a valid drillcomplete message 3810 is sent via a router 3812 that connects to theservice 3814 to send an outside confirmation 3816 to an outside agencysuch as the insurance company 3712.

The scheme 3800 may also include an outside verification. For example,one or more buildings or building units may be synchronized betweenmultiple units to be drilled concurrently. In some embodiments, thesynchronized drill may be sent to the insurance company 3712 that maysend a representative to ensure that the drills have been successfullycompleted. Additionally, or alternatively, occupants of one building orunit may confirm a completed drill of other buildings or building unitsin the area. For example, a coordinating user may be designated in aneighborhood or apartment complex to confirm that drills have beencompleted by sending a verification of results 3820 as the outsideconfirmation 3816. In some embodiments, the verification of results 3820may be sent electronically using a verification device 3822 eitherdirectly with the confirmation service or via the service 3814. In someembodiments, the scheme 3800 may employ additional devices to determinewhen a drill has been properly completed. For example, a smart phone3824 may send GPS data as outside confirmation 3816 that the user hasexited the building.

f. Types of Hazard Drills and Coordination by Disparate Building Devices

As previously discussed, the hazard detector 400 may be used todetermine or notify building occupants of various emergency types. Toprepare for each emergency type, when scheduling or starting a drill,the drill initiation smart device may request a desired drill type froma user (block 4000). As previously discussed, in some embodiments,during a configuration of a drill, the configuring smart device maypresent options for types of drills to be initiated or scheduled. Forexample, the configuring device may present an option to perform a firedrill, a CO drill, an earthquake drill, a flood drill, a tornado drill,a hurricane drill, a shelter in place drill. The configuring smartdevice may then receive an indication of drill type (block 4004). Insome embodiments, the smart device may present options related to theselected drill type. Using either default or received options, the smartdevice may then send instructions to other smart devices to performdrill-type specific actions during the drill (block 4006).

For example, during a smoke alarm drill or emergency event, the hazarddetectors 400 or other smart devices may instruct the occupants to leavethe building while remaining low, the lights may be bright or hued(e.g., orange or yellow which is less likely to cause glare in smoke),unlock the doors, contact emergency personnel, turn on the irrigationsystem to reduce likelihood of fire spreading to neighbors, turn onlights to illuminate exit path by switching smart switches, orperforming other actions to aid occupants in exiting the building orprotecting the building. The smart devices may also switch offnon-essential devices during the drill or emergency. For example, duringa fire drill, the smart network may instruct a dryer, refrigerator,HVAC, or other large appliances to switch off to reduce powerconsumption or electrical current through the house during a fire.Although it may be appreciated, that in some embodiments, it may bedesirable to contact emergency personnel only during emergencies. Inother embodiments, emergency personnel may be involved in drills andcontacted as part of the drill either before or during the drill.Additionally or alternatively, a pseudo-emergency personnel contact maybe used during a drill to emulate an actual emergency situations. Forexample, an application running on a smart phone may run a prerecordedmessage similar to questions that may be asked by emergency personnelduring an actual emergency.

During a CO drill, the hazard detectors or other smart devices mayinstruct the occupants to exit the building while remaining upright,instruct occupants to open windows if they can be opened safely, unlockwindows and doors, instruct users to leave the door open, turn onceiling fans, contact emergency personnel, or other actions that may aidthe occupants in exiting the building or ventilating the building.

During an earthquake drill, the hazard detectors 400 or other smartdevices may instruct the occupants to remain in the house but go tosafest places (e.g., under a desk or door jam), turn off one or moredevices such as HVAC, stove, dryer, or other devices, or perform otheractions that may aid in an earthquake. Similarly, during a tornado orhurricane, similar actions may be taken. During a flood drill oremergency, the smart devices may contact emergency personnel, turn offirrigation systems, or instruct the occupants to remain indoors or leavethe building based on the advancement of the storm, elevation of thehouse, location of flood plains, or other factors. During a shelter inplace drill, the smart devices may instruct the occupants to stay indoors, lock doors and windows, and stay away from windows. The smartdevices may also switch off devices such as televisions, stereos, andlights.

As may be appreciated, the smart network may employ multiple devicesthat are not conventionally automated to assist during drills oremergencies. For example, devices that may be employed during a drill oremergency may include smart switches, refrigerators, dryers, washingmachines, televisions, smart outlets, thermostats, irrigation systems,handheld devices, door locks, window locks, security sensors, or otherdevices that may aid during a drill or emergency. However, due todifferent building sizes, building shapes, and arrangements of deviceswithin the buildings, it may be useful to use drills as learning periodsor fine tuning periods to confirm that devices comply with desireddevice behavior during a drill or emergency. For this reason, in someembodiments, the questionnaire 2204 presented to a user after a drillmay confirm device behavior complies with desired actions during thedrill or emergency (block 4102), as illustrated in FIG. 41. In someembodiments, the questionnaire 2204 may be available at any point (e.g.,via an account profile), but a reminder to update the questionnaire 2204may be presented at the time of completion of the drill. If some of thedevices are not initially behaving as desired, a configuration devicemay be used to adjust undesired behaviors (block 4104). For example, theconfiguration device may be used to train the devices how tosequentially strobe toward a fire exit, disable certain features (e.g.,leave dryer on) during drills, or other behaviors that may be adjustedto achieve a personalized drill behavior and/or personalized behaviorfor an actual emergency. By providing customization, users may becapable of providing an environment specific to the arrangement of thedevices, layout of the building, or user preferences that reduces exittime. In fact, these settings may be fine tuned as part of the gamescheme to encourage users to attempt different settings to determinewhich are more helpful for the user in the specific type of drill.

The hazard detection unit may provide a user with a safety report, e.g.,a report including a summary of alarms and pre-alarms that may have beengenerated during the past month or another time period. The safetyreport may be generated by the hazard detection unit, an onlinemanagement account, or an application program and provided to the user.This report may, for example, allow users to review changes in detectedcarbon monoxide levels each month for one or more hazard detectionunits. Health check monitoring may also be available via the applicationprogram.

Networked connected thermostats and/or other network connected devices(e.g., the devices shown in FIG. 1) may be used in combination with thishazard detection unit, and may provide users with integrated features.For example, data obtained from PIR sensors of the hazard detection unitcan be provided to a network connected thermostat to improve theaccuracy of occupancy detection by the thermostat, and therefore permita more accurate temperature setting response to occupancy by thethermostat. As another example, the hazard detection unit maycommunicate a signal over Wi-Fi to a network connected thermostat orHVAC system to turn off the furnace and/or turn on or increase fan speedwhen the hazard detection unit generates a CO alarm; users may benotified of this communication via email or an application program.Furthermore, smart bulbs may glow different colors based ondrill/alert/emergency state.

g. History

In some embodiments, completed drills may be tracked by being added toan event log for the hazard detector and/or the smart network. Suchevent history may be accessible via a device log 4110, as illustrated inFIG. 42. The device log 4110 includes one or more time periods 4112 thatinclude an indicator 4114 to identify the time period displayed in thetime period. As illustrated, the time period 4112 corresponds to asingle day from midnight to midnight. However, other embodiments mayinclude other periods of time, such as hours, days, weeks, and/ormonths. The device log 4110 also includes an event indicator 4116 thatindicates that an event occurred at some point in the past. The eventindicator 4116 can be an icon that indicates the type of event thatoccurred. Furthermore, the device log 4110 may also include anadditional information banner 4118. In some embodiments, the additionalinformation banner 4118 may be presented as long as an event indicator4116 is present in the device log 4110. However, in certain embodiments,the additional information banner 4118 may appear when the eventindicator 4116 is selected (e.g., clicked, moused over, etc.).

Additionally or alternatively, drill results can be used to enhance testresults for the smart devices in the smart network. For example, duringthe drill, each smart device may run verify that various components(e.g., speaker, sensors, voice, batteries, Internet, networkconnections, etc.) are functioning properly. Furthermore, during and/orafter the drill, each device may perform diagnostics to ensure that thecomponents of the devices are functioning properly. This information maybe tracked and reviewed using a history page 4130, as illustrated inFIG. 43. As illustrated, the history page 4130 may be presented via asmartphone via an application program. Additionally or alternatively,the history page 4130 may be accessed by a web browser or applicationprogram via any suitable computing device.

As illustrated, the history page 4130 may include navigation icons 4132that indicate that portions of the history page 4130 may be selected tonavigate back to a main menu or drill down further into the historyreflected in the history page 4130. The history page 4130 also includesa test results indicator 4134. The test results indicator 4134 maydisplay information about the most recent test results, such as the dateof the last test results. Moreover, the test results may also include anindicator of the overall health of the smart network determined from thetest. For example, a background for the test results indicator 4136 canchange color based on the tests. For example, if important components(e.g., sensors) have not passed the tests, the background may change tored. If less important components (e.g., Internet) have not passed thetests, the background may change to yellow. If all components havepassed, the background may be green or blue. If the information haschanged in the test results since the last viewing, the test resultsindicator 4134 may include a notification 4136 of such changes. Thehistory page 4130 may also include an array of devices 4138 that providea list of the devices available in the smart network and/or the account.In some embodiments, selecting a device from the array of devices 4138may open a device log (e.g., device log 4110) specific to the devices.

When the test results indicator 4134 is selected a test results page4140 is opened using the computing device, as illustrated in FIG. 44.From the test results page 4140, a back item 4142 may be selected thatnavigates the computing device back to the history page 4130. The testresults page 4140 also includes a list of devices 4144 that eachincludes a device test status 4146 and a date 4148 for the most recentresults. Each entry may also include a notification 4150 that indicatesthat whether the specific test results for the device have been viewedsince the last change and/or whether significant changes have occurredsince the last viewing. When a particular entry is selected, theselected entry may be expanded within the test results page 4140, asillustrated in FIG. 45. In other words, the remaining portions of thelist 4144 are pushed down upon selection of the entry. In someembodiments, when viewing the expanded results, each component of thedevice corresponding to the entry may be presented along with itsstatus. In certain embodiments, the statuses for the components in thedevice may be manually changed. For example, if a user replaces thebatteries since the recent test, the user may change the status fromfailed to passed. However, in some such embodiments, a new test resultsentry may be created by copying the previous test and replacing and/orconducting a new diagnostic test.

h. Edge Cases

In some embodiments, a currently running drill may cease before a userindicates that the drill has been completed (e.g., power loss, networkloss, actual emergency, etc.)

i. Power Off

FIG. 46 illustrates a process 4200 for dealing with a power loss duringa drill. After a smart device has started a drill (block 4202), a smartdevice determines that power loss has occurred (block 4204). The devicedetecting power loss and initially starting the drill may be differentdevices. Instead, the device determining that the power loss hasoccurred may start a drill locally in response to receiving a drillinitiation message from other devices. For example, a hazard detectormay determine that line power has ceased and that the hazard detector isusing battery power. To conserve battery power, the smart device maystop the drill (block 4206). For example, the smart device may sendmessages to other devices to cease drilling. In some embodiments,stopping the drill includes notifying (e.g., audibly, visually, etc.)drill participants of the drill ending. The smart device can also sendnotifications to the service and/or participants indicating that thedrill was halted due to the power loss (block 4208). For example,notification may be sent to the service that causes the service to sendnotification to an application program (e.g., running on a smart phone)to be viewed by an administrator for the smart network.

Although the foregoing contemplates a power loss, drilling may also behalted if connectivity is lost between devices. For example, if thedevices determine that connectivity between the devices have cease, eachdevice may locally stop the drill and notify (e.g., audibly, visually,via electronic message, etc.) that the connection between devices hasterminated.

ii. Real Alarm

FIG. 47 illustrates an embodiment of a process 4220 where an actualemergency begins during an alarm. While a device is drilling (block4222), the device receives an indication that an actual emergency exists(block 4224). This indication may be direct determination of emergencyusing sensors or indirect determination via an electronic messageindicating that another device has determined that an actual emergencyhas occurred. In response to the indication, the device stops the drill(block 4226). In some embodiments, a stop drill signal is propagatedthrough the smart network. In certain embodiments, the indication ispropagated alone and used to indicate that the drill should stop on alldevices. The device also indicates that the drill has ended and that anactual emergency exists (block 4228). For example, in some embodiments,the device may audibly state “The drill has ended, because there is afire in the bedroom.” Additionally or alternatively, displayed textand/or colors may change from drill representations to actual emergencyrepresentations. In some embodiments, each device makes suchnotifications as soon as possible. Additionally or alternatively, thedevices attempt to coordinate notifications to synchronizeannouncements. After the notification has been made, the device mayproceed with the appropriate alarm state (block 4230). For example, thedevice may proceed with normal protocols related to fire or COdetection. In some embodiments, the notification of drill ending may berepeated periodically during the alarm for the actual emergency.

III. Hazard Detector Devices

Additional features and functions may be added to the hazard detectionunit over time (e.g., after a user purchases a hazard detection unit orafter the hazard detection has shipped to retailers). The hazarddetection unit may already include the hardware necessary to supportthese additional features and functions, and software updates may beapplied to the hazard detection unit to add these additional featuresand functions. Examples the additional functions and features aredescribed below.

The hazard detection unit may be calibrated (e.g., at the unit's userinterface, an application program or an online management account) basedon the location (e.g., the bedroom or the kitchen) in which it islocated. This location or room specific calibration may be used toincrease the accuracy of the alarms produced by the hazard detectionunit, enhancing home safety and reducing the occurrence of false orunnecessary alarms. For example, when placed near or in a kitchen, thehazard detection unit may be calibrated to be less sensitive to smoke sothat an alarm is not unnecessarily generated when a normal level ofsmoke is produced by cooking or some other safe kitchen activity.However, a hazard detection unit placed in or near a bedroom may becalibrated to be more sensitive to smoke because any level of smoke in abedroom may not be normal and may justify generating an alarm. Smokelevel data collected over time by the hazard detection unit may be usedto determine common and uncommon smoke levels and to adjust the locationspecific calibration accordingly (e.g., the sensitivity of the hazarddetection unit may be calibrated to only generate alarms when uncommonlyhigh levels of smoke are detected). In addition, as users hush orsilence hazard detection units (e.g., by waving or manually hushing thealarm), the hazard detection unit may learn what hazard levels the userassociates with necessary alarms. For example, this learning hushfeature may learn over time that certain smoke levels in the kitchen aretypically hushed while others are not typically hushed. Thereafter, thehazard detection unit may only generate alarms when smoke levels aredetected that were not historically hushed or silenced.

The hazard detection unit may provide users with relevant and actionableinformation concerning what to do after an alarm has been triggered.This information may be provided during an alarm in the form of speechto help users that may be disoriented by the alarm and/or the dangeroccurring in a home. In order to familiarize users with this informationbefore an alarm is generated, this information may also be providedduring the setup process of the hazard detection unit.

As previously discussed, the hazard detection unit may also include afire drill feature (e.g., random or scheduled times where an alarm willsound regardless of the presence of any hazards). This fire drillfeature may provide users with opportunities to experience an alarm andto practice responding to it. In order to prevent confusion, the hazarddetection unit's fire drill alarm may indicate that it is a fire drillalarm, not a real alarm.

Occupancy information may be detected by a hazard detection unit so thatit can be provided at an application program during an alarm or drill.For example, during an alarm or drill, the application program mayprovide a notification that “A person was in Bedroom 1 at 11:21 p.m.last night.” In order to avoid providing information that is no longeraccurate, this notification may only be provided if the occupancyinformation is updated shortly before an alarm is generated.

Embodiments of this hazard detection unit listed under UL 268 maycompatible with a Security Control Panel. A dongle may be used toconnect the hazard detection unit to security control panels over 4-wireconnections.

In addition to being able to utilize Wi-Fi, the hazard detection unitmay be able to create or join other networks (e.g., 6LoWPAN or otherlow-power communication protocols). These other networks may be used towirelessly connect to a multiplicity of network connected devices (e.g.,the devices shown in FIG. 1).

For a firmware and/or software implementation, the methodologies may beimplemented with modules (e.g., procedures, functions, and so on) thatperform the functions described herein. Any machine-readable mediumtangibly embodying instructions may be used in implementing themethodologies described herein. For example, software codes may bestored in a memory. Memory may be implemented within the processor orexternal to the processor. As used herein the term “memory” refers toany type of long term, short term, volatile, nonvolatile, or otherstorage medium and is not to be limited to any particular type of memoryor number of memories, or type of media upon which memory is stored.

Moreover, as disclosed herein, the term “storage medium” may representone or more memories for storing data, including read only memory (ROM),random access memory (RAM), magnetic RAM, core memory, magnetic diskstorage mediums, optical storage mediums, flash memory devices and/orother machine readable mediums for storing information. The term“machine-readable medium” includes, but is not limited to portable orfixed storage devices, optical storage devices, wireless channels,and/or various other storage mediums capable of storing that contain orcarry instruction(s) and/or data.

As briefly described above, the light ring of the disclosed hazarddetector, such as the Nest Protect™, may be used to provide a haloappearance of light around and behind the lens button of the hazarddetector, being particularly useful as a method of communicating with anearby user. For some embodiments, the light ring is configured toreceive light from a plurality of light sources (e.g., a plurality oflight pipes or light conduits, a plurality of strategically placed LEDs,or other methods of light transfer or creation) and to distribute thatlight in one of a spatially varying manner around the light ring (e.g.,different light intensities and/or colors at different radial angles,ranges of radial angles, or radial zones around the center of the ringwhen viewed from the front), a time-varying manner, or temporospatiallyvarying manner so as to provide certain predetermined visual effectsthat serve as certain predetermined communication signals for perceptionby nearby occupants. Although it is not outside the scope of the presentteachings for the hazard detector to be provided with a dot-matrixdisplay or LCD screen (such as those provided on smartphones) forcommunicating status and other information to a user, the light ring andassociated methodologies as described herein have been found to providean informative, visually pleasing, and compelling user interfaceexperience that promptly and effectively provides useful visualcommunication without requiring the close proximity and degree of eyefocusing effort associated with reading a dot-matrix display screen.

For one embodiment representative of one such communication methodology,there are provided judiciously persistent, and yet at the same timepleasant, communications to nearby occupants regarding a status of thehazard detection unit by the use of a modulated glow of halo lightemitted by the light ring. For some embodiments, the modulated glow ofhalo light is emitted responsive to one or more triggers indicating thatit may be useful to communicate status information to a nearby occupant,wherein the time pattern, spatial pattern, color, or other visualcharacteristic of the modulation is representative or indicative of aparticular condition to be communicated to the occupant and/orrecommended action to be taken by the occupant. One example of atriggering event may be the shutting off of a room light as detected byan ambient light sensor of the hazard detection unit. Examples of thetype of modulated glow can include a fade-in uniform glow of a pleasantcolor or non-alarming color, such as green, to communicate a reassurancethat the status of the hazard detector is “everything is okay.” Thefade-in glow can comprise, for example, a one-second ramp-up of lightintensity from dark to bright, followed by a one-second glow at fullbrightness, followed by a one-second fade-out from bright to dark.Advantageously, the temporal variation enhances the ability of the userto notice the advisory light even when they were not directly looking atit, while at the same time the color and fade-in nature of the glowmaintains a degree of pleasantness. Advantageously, at the same time,battery life of battery-powered versions of the hazard detection unit ispreserved by virtue of the temporary nature of the modulated glow.Another type of modulated glow, which can optionally be combined with afade-in characteristic, is a rotating halo-sweep effect, which emulatesthe visual effect of one or more point light sources traveling around aperimeter of the circle, each of them leaving a comet-like tail of lightin its wake.

Another example of a type of modulated glow can be a fade-in glow of asomewhat more concerning color, such as yellow, to suggest that the usermay want to investigate one or more anomalous, but not necessarilysevere, conditions that have been determined to be present. An exampleof such a condition could be that a charge level of a battery on-boardthe hazard detector is starting to get low, although not low enough formandatory replacement, and should be replaced in the reasonablynot-too-distant future. It will be appreciated by one skilled in the artthat this type of advance notification for a low-battery condition in ahazard detector will promote a relatively pleasant user experience incomparison to that provided by many conventional smoke and/or COdetectors currently on the market, which are configured to act only whenthe battery becomes low enough to require mandatory replacement in theform of intermittently emitted short loud chirps, chirps which can oftenawake sleeping occupants, whose frustration is then often exacerbated bya need to empirically localize which of multiple installed units isactually emitting the chirp, and whose safety can then often becompromised by a sleepy decision to simply remove the battery“temporarily” and replace it during waking hours. Notably, although thehazard detection unit is preferably configured to indeed emit such shortloud chirps when the battery does indeed require mandatory replacementfor purposes of maintaining consistency with governmental or industryregulations, such unpleasantness is often advantageously avoided byvirtue of the above-described advance yellow modulated-glownotifications which lead to battery replacement prior to reaching thelow mandatory-replacement levels. It is to be appreciated that although“yellow” is used herein to identify a “concerning” color, it isrepresentative of any of a variety of “concerning” colors or colorcombinations that can be used according to the present teachings toindicate an anomalous condition.

According to some embodiments, the triggered yellow modulated glowprovided by the light ring can be indicative of the presence of one ormore of a plurality of different potential anomalous conditions, and theyellow modulated glow serves as an invitation to the user to make aninquiry into the particular nature of the detected anomalouscondition(s). For some embodiments, the yellow modulated glow is storedat a cloud server of a web-based service associated with the smart,network-connected hazard detector, to which the user can log on usingtheir personal computer, tablet, or smartphone to investigate theparticular status of the unit. For purposes of battery conservation inbattery-only units that connect to the cloud service by Wi-Fi connectionthrough a conventional home router, the hazard detection unit isconfigured to upload status information to the cloud service by Wi-Ficonnection only upon the occurrence of particular events (such as theuser pressing the lens button, alarm or pre-alarm conditions, thedetection of a user waving their hand at the unit as detected by onboardPIR/ultrasonic sensors, etc.), or if no such events have occurredrecently, then at least once every 12 or 24 hours. Alternatively or inconjunction with user inquiry to the cloud server, the nature of theparticular anomalous condition indicated by the yellow modulated glowcan be communicated directly by the hazard detector using a real-timeaudio (or audiovisual) response to a user inquiry made directly theretoupon perceiving the yellow modulated glow. For some embodiments, thereal-time audio response can be made to the user using acomputer-synthesized or pre-recorded voice emitted using an onboardspeaker (e.g., “The yellow light was shown because my battery isstarting to get low.”) For some embodiments, the user inquiry to evincethis response upon seeing the yellow modulated glow can be made byvirtue of pressing the lens button. For some embodiments, the userinquiry is established by virtue of a back-and-forth wave gesture madeby the user's hand while the user is facing the unit, the unit havingone or more sensors capable of detecting the wave gesture motion asdescribed in the commonly assigned U.S. Ser. No. 61/847,906, supra. Forsome embodiments, as discussed in U.S. Ser. No. 61/847,906, supra, acombination of PIR and ultrasonic sensor information is used to detect auser wave gesture motion without requiring optical sensing/opticalrecognition techniques, thereby providing an advantage of enabling thewave gesture recognition while also keeping electrical powerrequirements suitably low to preserve battery life in battery-onlyunits. However, it is to be appreciated that the scope of the presentteachings is not so limited, and that other inquiry methods anddetection techniques can be used without departing from the scope of thepresent teachings including, but not limited to, optical recognitiontechniques (i.e., visually “seeing” the user waving their hand), audioor speech recognition techniques (e.g., the user clapping their handstwice or saying “please explain the yellow light” or similar suchinquiries), ambient light sensing techniques (e.g., the user flippingthe room light switch on and off three or more times), or other methods.

In one scenario provided according to one or more embodiments that showsthe usefulness and appeal of such features, the hazard detection unitmay be installed in the bedroom of a child who is being tucked in by hermother for the night. After tucking in the child, the mother turns thelight out as she walks toward the door. Just then, the hazard detectionunit senses the turning off of the light by virtue of the on-boardambient light sensor, and then proceeds to show a fade-in uniform glowfor a short time (e.g., two to three seconds) of a pleasing green colorusing the light ring. The mother sees the light out of the corner of hereye as she walks out the door and is pleasantly reassured that thehazard detection unit, which will be in her child's midst throughout thenight, is signaling that no anomalies are detected, and she is pleasedthat she installed the hazard detection unit in furtherance of keepingher child and family safe. In an alternative scenario in which theyellow modulated glow is presented and perceived by the mother, themother hesitates, walks toward the unit, and waves her hand in a wavegesture. As she is waving or very shortly thereafter, she hears the unitsay “My battery is starting to get low, please replace in the nearfuture.” While knowing she should take some action reasonable soon tohave the battery replaced, she is pleasantly reassured in knowing herfamily will not be woken up by irritating chirps in the middle of thenight, and that there are otherwise no anomalies reported other than thebattery issue by the unit. As an alternative to hand wave gesturing tothe unit, the mother can walk out and close the child's bedroom door,and then access her web site account corresponding to the unit using hercomputer, tablet, or smartphone to see the reason for the yellowmodulated glow. Providing a smart, network-connected household hazarddetector that uses a modulated light glow such as can be provided by ahalo light having temporal, spatial, or temporospatial modulation tofacilitate seamless, easily-perceived yet information-richcommunications with users has been found to substantially increase userappeal, which can advantageously increase the ubiquity of smart,network-connected household hazard detectors, which can in turn prove tobe a boon for household safety and public safety.

According to some embodiments, a judiciously invoked lighting feature,which is termed herein a pathlighting feature, is also provided byvirtue of the light ring (or other light-emitting element mounted uponor associated with the hazard detector) in conjunction with one or moreambient light sensors mounted on or associated with the hazard detector.According to some embodiments, the hazard detection unit is configuredto emit a predetermined amount of illumination at a predetermined powerlevel upon the detection of motion by the one or more motion sensors ofthe hazard detector. According to some embodiments, the hazard detectoris configured to detect the presence of one or more conditionsindicating that there is an occupant likely requiring additional ambientlight in moving from one location to another, and to actively emit anamount of light sufficient to facilitate that occupant movement.Preferably, a determination of conditions sufficient to trigger anemitting of supplemental light takes into account a combination of (i)at least one user-induced sensor reading by the hazard detector, such asthe sensing of user movement in the room or hallway (such as by a PIR oractive motion detector, low-light-sensitive video sensor, heat sensor,etc.) and/or the sensing of an audible user request (e.g., a voicecommand from the user saying “light my path” or “pathlight”), (ii) atleast one current ambient light level reading, and (iii) at least onehistorical ambient light level reading. Thus, for example, if the useris not making motions consistent with a significant change of locationin the room or hallway, or if the room is not dark enough to requireadditional ambient lighting in view of the historical lighting patternof the room, then no light is output from the hazard detector.

For some embodiments that are particularly advantageous for battery-onlyhazard detector units in preserving power, the intensity of the lightemitted is adaptive, such that the particular amount of marginal lightsupplied is not substantially greater than the particular amount ofmarginal light needed by the human occupant to achieve the goal ofmoving from one place to the other in the room or hallway in areasonably safe manner. Preferably, the adaptation response of the humanvisual system is taken into account in determining both the need foradditional illumination and the amount of additional illuminationprovided. Advantageously, in addition to preserving electrical power forembodiments in which the hazard detector is a battery-only unit, thelimiting of the light intensity may also lead to a more opticallycomfortable experience for the moving occupant.

Thus, in one scenario illustrating the features and advantages of one ormore described embodiments, a student who has been studying underrelatively bright ambient lighting for several hours decides to pulldown all window shades, turn off the light, and crawl into bed. However,20 seconds after lying down, the student realizes they have not brushedtheir teeth and stands up at the side of the bed to walk toward thedoor. Upon detecting the student standing up at the bed, the hazarddetector emits light at a first level as the student walks toward andout the door to the bathroom. When implemented according to someembodiments, that first light level is substantially brighter than asecond level of light that would be provided by the hazard detector inan alternative scenario in which the student had performed all thosesame actions, but had instead been studying under relatively dim lightfor those several hours. This is because the student's eyes would notneed as much light since they had already been adjusted to a low lightlevel just before turning out the light 20 seconds earlier. Furthermore,that first light level is substantially brighter than a third level oflight that would be provided by the hazard detector in a differentalternative scenario in which the student had performed all those sameactions, but had instead has been lying in bed for 20 minutes beforerealizing they had not brushed their teeth. The third level of light canbe substantially dimmer than the first level of light, because the humanvisual response of the student has had 20 minutes to adapt to thedarkness, such that relatively little light is needed for safe passageto the door of the room, and indeed such that the student may even haveexperienced some degree of discomfort (squinting) if the relativelybright first amount of light had been provided.

Certain embodiments describing features or characteristics that mayaccompany or be used alternatively to the above-described statuscommunication methods and/or pathlighting methods are presented here byway of example and not by way of limitation. For some embodiments, thewave gesture recognition feature associated with the above statuscommunications method can have a default “enabled” status, but can bedisabled by the user by logging on to their account at the web-basedcloud service provider and accessing a corresponding featureenable/disable menu. For other embodiments, the wave gesture recognitionfeature can have a default “disabled” status, but can be enabled by theuser by logging on to their online account. For some embodiments, thedescribed automated pathlighting feature can have a default “disabled”status, but can be enabled by the user by logging on to their onlineaccount. For other embodiments, the pathlighting feature can have adefault “enabled” status, but can be enabled by the user by logging onto their online account.

For some embodiments, a variety of different triggers by which thehazard detector may be caused to communicate status information to userscan be used including, but not limited to: upon sensing a first entry ofan occupant into a space, such as by motion detection, afterpredetermined period of vacancy in that space; upon sensing asubstantial vibration, such as by an onboard accelerometer, that may beindicative of a nearby door being closed or opened; upon sensing anaudio sound similar to that of a door being opened or closed; upon auser request for status actuated by pressing a button on the device;upon a user voice request for status information (e.g., “Present devicestatus”); after sensing an entrance of a new occupant in analready-occupied room, such as by automated facial recognition, or byRFID, NFC, or other electromagnetic signature associated with the newentrant's smartphone or other wearable device; upon sensing asubstantial pressure change that may be indicative of a window or doorbeing opened or closed; upon a sensed or communicated “scene change” toa room in the form of modified lighting, modified window shadepositioning, modified entertainment system settings, or other “scenechange”; upon detecting the presence of more occupants than apredetermined number of occupants or more than a learned “normal” numberof occupants; or more generally, upon the happening of one or moresensed events and/or received communications by which, when assessed inview of one or more predetermined or learned parameters, a conclusion orinference can be made that it would be useful to communicate a devicestatus to an occupant. For some embodiments, a variety of differenttriggers by which the hazard detector may be caused to light a path foran occupant, or otherwise increase an ambient light level in a space,can be used including, but not limited to: receiving a voice commandfrom the occupant; sensing that a bright television in a relatively dimroom has been turned off; sensing general or specified audio activitiesduring sleeping hours after a substantial period of quiet (e.g., thecreaking of a bedframe or floorboards); or more generally upon thehappening of one or more sensed events and/or received communications bywhich, when assessed in view of current and historical ambient lightmeasurements and one or more other predetermined or learned parameters,a conclusion or inference can be made that it would be useful toincrease an ambient light level in a space for the benefit of anoccupant.

Certain embodiments describing features or characteristics that mayaccompany or be used alternatively to the above-described statuscommunication methods and/or pathlighting methods are presented here byway of example and not by way of limitation. While the use of a halolight represents one particularly effective physical configuration foremitting modulated light patterns recognizable from multiple distances,other configurations such as multiple concentric haloes, multipleindividual lights of varying shapes, a single individual point lightjudiciously time-modulated, or multiple individual point lights arrangedin regularly or irregular patterns can be used. While communicating astatus of the hazard detector itself based on information represents oneparticularly advantageous set of information to communicate, any of avariety of other statuses associated with the household or family can becommunicated by the above-described status communication methodsincluding, but not limited to: a general or specific security status ofthe home (showing, for example, the green modulated glow to communicatean “all is well” status, a yellow modulated glow if the garage door isstill open at a late evening hour); a general or specific network statusof the home network (e.g., the router/modem has lost broadbandcommunication with the ISP); a general or specific household operationalstatus (e.g., a yellow modulated glow if the sprinkler systemmalfunctioned last night); a general or specific household efficiencystatus (e.g., the gas pool heater has exceeded a predetermined costthreshold for the month); a general or specific household obligationalstatus (e.g., a yellow modulated glow if a past-due e-mail from autility company, paid content provider, or communications company hasbeen received); or any of a variety of other predetermined or learnedhousehold-related or family-related statuses for which a trigger,conclusion, or inference can be established that it would be useful tocommunicate such household-related or family-related status to a user.

According to some embodiments in which an audible voice or audible soundis used to communicate with the user, the hazard detection unit isconfigured to automatically vary the loudness of the speaker accordingto a static and/or dynamic audio profile of the room or hallway in whichit is installed. Thus, for example, if the communication is to be madeduring a time of high ambient noise (e.g., the kids are playing loudlyor visitors are shouting at the football game on television), then theloudness of the speaker is increased, whereas if it is currently quietand there has been an extended period of quiet, the loudness of thespeaker can be decreased.

In view of the described embodiments hereinabove and hereinbelow, itwill be recognized by those of skill in the art that variousmodifications, alternative constructions, and equivalents may be usedwithout departing from the spirit of the disclosure. By way of example,various user interfaces for operating hazard detectors, HVACs and otherdevices have been provided yet the designs are meant to be illustrativeand not limiting as to the scope of the overall disclosure. By way offurther example, while methods and systems have been described forreceiving hazard detection and hazard detector status information, it iscontemplated that these methods may be applied to receive and/orcommunicate other information. It is to be further appreciated that theterm hazard detector, as used hereinabove and hereinbelow, can includehazard detectors having direct wired connection with hazard responsesystems, and can further include hazard detectors that do not connectdirectly with the hazard response systems, but that provide alertsconcerning detected potential hazard conditions. By way of furthernon-limiting example, although it has been found particularlyadvantageous to provide one or more of the above-describedevent-triggered modulated-light-glow device status communication methodsin the context of a hazard detector not outfitted with a dot-matrixdisplay, it is to be appreciated that the scope of the present teachingsis not so limited, and that in other embodiments such event-triggeredmodulated-light-glow device status communication methods can be providedin a hazard detection unit that does provide a dot-matrix display thatcan be read at close-up range. For some embodiments, the above-describedevent-triggered modulated-light-glow device status communication methodscan be provided by the dot-matrix display itself without requiring aseparate light ring or other light-source pattern, wherein the visualeffects of the above-described event-triggered modulated-light-glowdevice status communication methods are provided by the dot-matrixscreen itself. In still other embodiments, the hazard detector uses itspresence detection and proximity detection modules to determine whethera detected occupant is close enough to the unit to read the dot-matrixdisplay, wherein the status information is set forth in text form orother more conventional electronic display form if the user is closeenough to read it, but wherein the status information is set forth usingmodulated-light-glow methods similar to those described hereinabove ifthe user is not close enough to read the conventional dot-matrix displayform of the information. By way of further non-limiting example,although it has been found particularly advantageous to provide one ormore of the above-described user interface buttons and event-triggeredmodulated-light-glow device status communication methods in the contextof a household hazard detector, it is to be appreciated that thehardware and software for carrying out such apparatus and methods can beprovided in conjunction with any of a variety of different householddevices including, but not limited to, thermostats, security panels,security-related devices, security-related displays, householdappliances, network communication equipment, lighting fixtures,household service robots, HVAC equipment, irrigation equipment,entertainment devices and systems, doorbell or other entryway automationsystems, and more generally any of the devices or systems set forth orassociated with the smart-home environment of FIG. 1, supra, withoutdeparting from the scope of the present teachings.

By way of still further non-limiting example, although it has been foundparticularly advantageous to provide one or more of the above-describedpathlighting functionalities, up to and including a user-adaptive andambient-light-adaptive pathlighting functionality, in conjunction with ahousehold hazard detector, with one particular advantage being directedto increasing the ubiquity of household hazard detectors (a benefit toboth private household safety and public safety) by increasing theirpopularity by favorable impressions upon users by virtue of thepathlighting functionality, with another particular advantage converselyto improve night time safety by virtue of promoting at least as manypathlighting devices as there are hazard detectors in homes, it is to beappreciated that the hardware and software for carrying out suchpathlighting methods can be provided in conjunction with any of avariety of different household devices including, but not limited to,thermostats, security panels, security-related devices, security-relateddisplays, household appliances, network communication equipment,lighting fixtures, household service robots, HVAC equipment, irrigationequipment, entertainment devices and systems, doorbell or other entrywayautomation systems, and more generally any of the devices or systems setforth or associated with the smart-home environment of FIG. 1, supra,without departing from the scope of the present teachings.

1-20. (canceled)
 21. A method for conducting building safety andincentivizing related insurance coverage, comprising: receiving, at anelectronic device, an indication to conduct a safety drill; instructinga hazard detector to emit a sound in response to the indication toconduct the safety drill, wherein the sound prompts occupants of thebuilding to perform a safety drill; verifying, based on sensor data,that the occupants satisfactorily completed the safety drill;transmitting a report to an insurance company associated with thebuilding that indicates that the drill occurred and was completed; andreceiving an acknowledgement that an insurance account of the insurancecompany has been updated and that a cost component relating to theinsurance account has been maintained or adjusted based on saidcompletion of the safety drill.
 22. The method of claim 21, comprising:displaying, on the electronic device, a success screen that indicatesinformation about the safety drill.
 23. The method of claim 22, whereinthe success screen comprises the acknowledgement.
 24. The method ofclaim 21, wherein the verifying using sensor data comprises obtainingdata via at least one hazard detector or at least one thermostat. 25.The method of claim 24, comprising using additional smart devices in asmart network comprising the at least one hazard detector and at leastone thermostat to assist in conducting the safety drill.
 26. The methodof claim 21, wherein the verifying using sensor data comprisesconfirming evacuation of the building.
 27. The method of claim 21,wherein the verifying comprises corroborating that a number of peopleexiting the building is at least equal to a percentage of peopleassociated with a profile of the building or equal to a number of peopledetected in the building.
 28. The method of claim 21, wherein the costcomponent is a rebate.
 29. The method of claim 21, wherein the costcomponent is a premium discount.
 30. The method of claim 29, wherein thepremium discount is proportional to the number of times the safety drillis successfully performed within a given time frame.
 31. An electronicdevice comprising: an input interface; a processor; and memory storinginstructions, that when executed, are configured to cause the processorto: receive, via the input interface, an indication to initiate a safetydrill; connect to a hazard detector and instruct the hazard detector toemit a sound in response to the indication to conduct the safety drill,wherein the sound prompts occupants of the building to perform a safetydrill; verify, based on sensor, data that the occupants satisfactorilycompleted the safety drill; transmit a report to an insurance companyassociated with the building that indicates that the drill occurred andwas completed; and receive an acknowledgement that an insurance accountof the insurance company has been updated and that a cost componentrelating to the insurance account has been maintained or adjusted basedon said completion of the safety drill.
 32. The electronic device ofclaim 31, wherein the instructions are configured to cause the processorto display a success screen that indicates information about the safetydrill.
 33. The electronic device of claim 32, wherein the success screencomprises the acknowledgement.
 34. The electronic device of claim 31,wherein the instructions are configured to cause the processor to theobtain data via at least one hazard detector or at least one thermostat.35. The electronic device of claim 34, wherein the instructions areconfigured to cause use additional smart devices in a smart networkcomprising the at least one hazard detector and at least one thermostatto assist in conducting the safety drill.
 36. The electronic device ofclaim 31, wherein the instructions are configured to cause the processorto confirm evacuation of the building.
 37. The electronic device ofclaim 31, wherein the instructions are configured to cause the processorto corroborate that a number of people exiting the building is at leastequal to a percentage of people associated with a profile of thebuilding or equal to a number of people detected in the building. 38.The electronic device of claim 31, wherein the cost component is arebate.
 39. The electronic device of claim 31, wherein the costcomponent is a premium discount.
 40. The electronic device of claim 39,wherein the premium discount is proportional to the number of times thesafety drill is successfully performed within a given time frame.